Six sermons on the nature, occasions, signs, evils, and remedy of intemperance

SIX SER

THE NATURE, OCCASIONS, SIGNS, EVILS. AND REM

INTEMPERANCE.

LYMAN BEECHER, D. D.

TENTH EDITION.

PUBLISHED BY THE

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW-YORK.

J833.

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS ...... TO WIT:

Vifirict Clerk's OJict.

BE it remembered, that on the twenty-third day of May,
A. D. 1827, in the fifty-first year of the Independence of the
United Stales of America, THEOI-HU.US II. MARVIN, of the
said District, has deposited in this Office the Title of a l?ook,
the Right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the Words follow-
ing, to wit :

" Six Sermons on the Nature, Occasions, Signs, Evils, and
Remedy of Intemperance. By Lyman Bcccher, D. D."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United
States, entitled " An Act for the encouragement of learning, by
securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors
and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men-
tioned ;" and also to an Act entitled '• An Act supplementary to
an Act, entitled An Act for the encouragement of learning, by
securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and
pr6prielors of such copies during the times therein mentioned ;
and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, en-
graving, and etching, historical and other prints."

Clerk of th* District
oj Massackusetts.

JNO W
JNO. W.

CONTENTS.

SERMON I. Pnje

The Nature and Occasions of Intemperance 5

SERMON II.

The Signs of Intemperance 25

SERMON III.
The Evils of Intemperance 47

SERMON IV.
The Remedy of Intemperance.., Gl

SERMON V.
The Remedy of Intemperance 75

SERMON VI.

The Remedy of Intemperance 89

SERMON I.

THE NATURE AND OCCASIONS OF INTEMPE-
RANCE.

PKOVERBS, xxiii. 29 — 35.

Who hath wo? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions ? who
tiath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath red-

11C" 111

They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed
wine.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it eiveth his
colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the List it
bitetli like a serpent, and stin^i'tli like an adder. Tl.ine eye shall
behold strange women, and thine heart sln.il niter perverse things.
Yea, thou shall be as lie that lieth down in the midst of the sea,
or as he tli.it lieth upon the top of a must. They have stricken
me, shall thou iy, and I was nut sick ; they have beaten me, and
I felt it not : when shall I awake? i will seek it yet again.

THIS is a glowing description of the sin of in-
temperance. None but the pencil of Inspiration,
could have thrown upon the canvass so many
and such vivid traits of this complicated evil, in
so short a compass. It exhibits its woes and
sorrows, contentions and babblings, and wounds
and redness of eyes ; its smiling deceptions in
the beginning, and serpent-bite in the end ; the
helplessness of its victims, like one cast out
upon the deep ; the danger of destruction, like
that of one who sleeps upon the top of a mast ;
I *

6 THE NATURE AND OCCASIONS

the unavailing lamentations of the captive, and
the giving up of hope and effort. "They have
stricken me, and I was not sick ; they have
beaten me, and 1 felt it not : when shall I awake ?
I will seek it yet again ;" again be stricken and
beaten ; again float upon the deep, and sleep
upon the mast.

No siu has fewer apologies than intemperance.
The suffrage of the world is against it ; and yet
there is no sin so naked in its character, and
whose commencement and progress is indicated
by so many signs, concerning which there is
among mankind such profound ignorance. All
reprobate drunkenness ; and yet, not one of the
thousands who fall into it, dreams of danger
when- he enters the way that leads to it.

The soldier, approaching the deadly breach,
and seeing rank after rank of those who preced-
ed him swept away, hesitates sometimes, and
recoils from certain death. But men behold the
effects upon others, of going in given courses,
they see them begin, advance, and end, in con-
firmed intemperance, and unappalled rush heed-
lessly upon the same ruin.

A part of this heedlessness arises from the
undefined nature of the crime in its early stages,
and the ignorance of men, coin erning what may
be termed the experimental indications of its
approach. Theft and falsehood are definite ac-
tions. But intemperance is a state of internal
sensation, and the indications may exist long,
and multiply, and the subject of them not be

OP INTEMPERANCE. 7

aware that they are the signs of intemperance.
It is not unfrequent, that men become irre-
claimable in their habits, without suspicion of
danger. Nothing, therefore, seems to be more
important, than a description of this broad ^ ay,
.thronged by so many travellers, that the tempe-
rate, when they come in sight cf it, may know
their danger and pass by it and turn away.

What I shall deliver on this subject, has been
projected for several years, has been delayed by
indisposition, and the pressure of other labors,
atid is advanced now without personal or local
reference.

Intemperance is, the sin of our land, and, with
our boundless prosperity, is coming in upon us
like a flood; and if anything shall defeat the
hopes of the world, which hang upon our expe-
riment of civil liberty, it is that river of fire,
which is rolling through the land, destroying the
vital air, and extending around an atmosphere
of death.

It is proposed in this and the subsequent dis-
courses,- to consider the nature, the occasions,
the signs, the evils, and the remedy of intem-
perance. In this discourse we shall consider

THE NATURE AND OCCASIONS OF INTEMPERANCE.

The more common apprehension is, that no-
thing is intemperance, which does not supersede
the regular operations of the mental faculties
and the bodily organs. However much a man
may consume of ardent spirits, if he can com-

8 THE NATURE AND OCCASIONS

mand his mind, his utterance, and his bodily
members, he is hot reputed intemperate. And
yet, drinking within these limits, he may be in-
temperate in respect to inordinate desire, the
quantity consumed, the expense incurred, the '
present effect on his health and temper, and
moral sensibilities, and what is more, in respect
to the ultimate and inevitable results of bodily
and mental imbecility, or sottish drunkenness.

God has made the human body to be sustain-
ed by food and sleep, and the mind to be invi-
gorated by effort and the regular healthfulness of
the moral system, and the cheering influence of
his moral government. And whoever, to sustain
the body, or invigorate the mind, or cheer the
heart, applies habitually the stimulus of ardent
spirits, does violence to the^laws of his nature,
puts the whole system into disorder, and is in-
temperate long before the intellect falters, or a
muscle is unstrung.

The effect of ardent spirits on the brain, and
the members of the body, is among the last ef-
fects of intemperance, and the least destructive
part of the sin. .It is the moral ruin which it
works in the soul, that gives it the denomina-
tion of giant-wickedness. If all who are intem-
perate, drank to insensibility, and on awaking,
could a~ise from the debauch with intellect and
heart uninjured, it would strip the crime of its
most appalling evils. B'lt among the woes
which the scriptures der.ounce against crime, one
is, "wo unto them that are mighty to drink

OP INTEMPERANCE. 9

wine, and men of strength to consume strong
drink." 1 hese are captains in the bands of in-
temperancj, and will d. ink two generations of
youths into the grave, before they go to lie down
by their side. The Lord deliver us from strong-
ht-aded men, who can move the tongue when
all are mute around them, and keep the eye
open when all around them sleep, and can walk
from the scene of riot, while their companions
must be aided or wait until the morning.

It is a matter of undoubted certainty, that
habitual tippling is \vorse than periodical drunk-
enness. The poor Indian, who, once a month,
drinks himself dead all but simple breathing,
will out-live for years the man who drinks little
and often, and is not, perhaps, susp 'cted of in-
temperance. The use of ardent spirits daily, as
ministering to cheerfulness, or bodily vigor,
ought to be regarded as intemperance. No per-
son, probably, ever did, or ever will, receive ar-
dent spirits into his system once a day, and for-
tify his constitution against its deleterious effects,
or exercise such discretion and self govern-
ment, as tha.t the quantity will not be increas-
ed, and bodily infirmities and mental imbeci-
lity be the result, and, in more than hah the
instances, inebriation. Nature may hold out
long against this sapping and mining of the con-
stitution, which daily tippling is carrying on ;
but, first or last, this foe of life will bring to the
assault enemies of its own formation, before

10 ' THE NATURE AND OCCASIONS

whose power the feehle and the mighty will be
alike unable to stand.

All such occasional exl ilaration of the spirits
by intoxicating liquors, as produces levity and
foolish jesting, and the loud laugh, is intempe-
rance, whether we regard those precepts which
require us to be sober-minded, or the effect
which such exhilaration and lightness has upon
the cause of Christ, when witnessed in profes-
sors of religion.' The cheerfulness of health,
and excitement of industry, and social inter-
course, is all which nature demands, or health
or purity permits.

A resort to ardent spirits as a means of in-
vigorating the intellect, or of pleasurable sensa-
tionx is also intemperance. It is a distraint
upon nature, to extort, in a short time, those
results of mind and feeling, which in her own
unimpelled course would tlow with less impetu-
osity, but in a more equable and healthful cur-
rent. The mind has its limits of intellectual
application, and the heart its limits of feeling,
and the nervous system of healthful exhilaration ;
and whatever you gain through stimulus, by way
of anticipation, is only so much intellectual and
vital power cut off <»t the latter end of life. It
is this occult intemperance, of daily drinking,
which generates a host of bodily infirmities
and diseases : loss of appetite — nausea at the
stomach — disordered bile — obstructions of the
liver — jaundice — dropsy — hoarseness of voice—

Or INTEMPERANCE. 11

coughs — consumptions — rheumatic pains — epi-
lepsy— gout — colic — palsy — apoplexy — insanity
— are the body-guards which attend intempe-
rance, in the form of tippling, and where the
odious name of drunkenness may perhaps be
never applied.

A multitude of persons, who are not account-
ed drunkards, create disease, and shorten their
chiys, by what they denominate a "prudent use
of ardent spirits." Let it therefore be engraven
upon the heart of every man, THAT THE DAILY

USE OF ARDENT SPIRITS, IN ANY FORM, OR IN
ANY DEGREE, IS INTEMPERANCE. Its effects are

certain, and deeply injurious, though its results
may be slow, and never be ascribed to the real
cause. It is a war upon the human constitution,
carried on ostensibly by an auxiliary, but which
never fails to subtract more vital power than it
imparts. Like the letting out cf M aters by little
and little, the breach widens, till Jife itself is
poured out. If all diseases which terminate in
death, could speak out at the grave, or tell their
origin upon the coffin-lid, we should witness
the most appalling and unexpected disclosures.
Happy the man, who so avoids the appearance
of evil, as not to shorten his days by what he
may call the prudent use of ardent points.

But we approach now a state of experience,
in which it is supposed generally that there is
some criminal intemperance. I mean when the
empire of reason is invaded, and weakness and
folly bear rule; prompting to garrulity, or sul-

12 THE NATURE AND OCCASIONS

len silence ; inspiring petulance, or anger, or
insipid good humo:ir, and silly conversation ;
pouring out oaths, and curses, or opening the
storehouse1 of secrets, their own and others.
And yet, by some, all these have been thought
insufficient evidence to support the charge, of
drinking, and to justify a process of di°' t>line
before the church. , The tongue must talter, and
the feet must trip, before, in the estimation of
some, professors of religion can be convicted of
the crime cf intemperance.

To a just and comprehensive knowledge, how-
,ever, of the crime of intemperance, not only a
definition is required, but a philosophical analy-
sis of its mechanical effects upon the animal
system.

To those who look only on the outward ap-
pearance, the triumphs of intemperance over
conscience, and taients, and learning, and cha-
racter, and interest, and family endearments,
have appeared wonderuil. But the wonder will
cease, when we consider the raging desire which
it enkindles, and the hand of torment which it
lays, on every fibre of the body and faculty of
the soul.

The stomach is the great organ of accelerated
circulation to the blood, of elasticity to the ani-
mal spirits, of pleasurable or paimul vibration to
the nerves, of vigor to the mind, and of ful-
ness to the cheerful affections of the soul. Here
is the silver cord of life, and the golden bowl at
the fountain, and the wheel at the cistern ; and

OF INTEMPERANCE. 13

as fhese fulfil their duty, the muscular and men-
tal and moral powers act in unison, and fill the
system with vigor and delight. But as these
central energies are enfeebled, the strength of
mind i»nd body declines, and lassitude, and de-
pression, and melancholy, and sighing, succeed
to the high beatings of health, and the light ol
life becomes as darkness.

Experience has decided, 'that any stimulus
applied statedly to the stomach, v/hich raises its
muscular tone aHove the point at which it can be
sustained, by food and sleep, produces, when it
has passed away, debility — a relaxation of the
over-wcrked organ, proportioned to its preter-
natural excitement The life-giving power of
the stomach falls of course as much below the
tone of cheerfulness and health, as it was injudi-
ciously raised above it. If the experiment be
repeated often, it produces an artificial tone of
stomach, essential to cheerfulness and muscular
vigor, entirely above the power of the regular
sustenance of nature to sustain,, and creates a
vacuum, which nothing ean fill, but the destruc-
tive power which made it — and when protracted
use ha? made the difference great, between the
natural and this artificial tone, and habit has
made it a second nature, the man is a drunkard,
and, in ninety-nine instances in a hundred, is
irretrievably undone. Whether his tongue fal-
ter, or his feet fail him or not, he will die of
intemperance. By whatever name his disease
may be called, it will be one of the legion which
2

14 THE NATURE AND OCCASIONS

lie in wait about the path of intemperance, and
which abused Heaven employs to execute wrr.th
upon the guilty.

But of all the ways to hell, which the feet of
deluded mortals tread, that of the intenrperate
is the most dreary and terrific. The demand
for artificial stimulus to supply the deficiencies'
of healthful aliment, is like the rage of thirst, and
the ravenous demand of famine. It is famine :
for the artificial excitement has become as es-
sential now to strength and cheerfulness, as
simple nutrition once was. But nature, taught
by habit to require what once she did not need,
demands gratification JIOAV with a decision inexo-
rable as death, and to most men as irresistible.
The denial is a living death. . The stomach, the
head, the heart, and arteries, and veins, and
every muscle, and every nerve, feel the exhaus-
tion, and the restless, unutterable wretchedness
which puts out the light of life, and curtains the
heavens, and carpets the earth with sackcloth.
All these varieties of sinking nature^ call upon
the wretched man with trumpet tongue, to dis-
pel this darkness, and raise the ebbing tide of
life, by the application of the cause which pro-
duced these woes, and^after a momentary allevia-
tion will produce them again with deeper ter-
rors, and more urgent importunity ; for the re-
petition, at each time renders the darkness
deeper, and the torments of self-denial more
irresistible and intolerable.

At length, the excitability of nature flags, and

OF INTEMPERANCE. 16

stimulants of higher power, and in greater quan-
tities, are required to rouse the impaired ener-
gies of life, until at length the whole process
of dilatory murder, and worse than purgatoria1
suffering, having been passed over, the silver
cord is loosed, the golden bowl is broken, the
wheel at the cistern stops, an -I the dust returns
to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God who
gave it.

These sufferings, however, of animal nature,
are not to be compared with the moral agonies
which convulse the soul. It is an immortal
being who sins, and suffers ; and as his earthly
house dissolves, he is approaching the judg-nent
seat, in anticipation of a miserable eternity.
He feels his captivity, and in anguish of spirit
clanks his chains and cries for help. Conscience
thunders, remorse goads, and as the gulf opens
before him, he recoils, and trembles, and weeps,
and prays, and resolves, and promises^ and re-
forms, and "seeks it yet again," — again re-
solves, andvweeps, and prays, and " seeks it yet
ag".in !" Wretched man, he has placed himself
in the hands of a giant, who never pities, and
never relaxes his iron gripe. He may struggle,
but he is in chains. He may cry for release,
but it comes not ; and lost ! lost ! may be in-
sc.ibed upon the door posts of his dwelling.

In the mean time these paroxysms of his dying
moral nature decline, n id a fearful apathy, the
harbinger of spiritual death, comes on. His
resolution fails, and his mental energy, and his

16 THE NATURE AND OCCASIONS

vigorous enterprise ; and nervous irritation and
depression ensue. The social affections lose
their fulness and tenderness, and cor science
loses its power, end the heart its sensibility,
until all that was once lovely and of good report,
retires and leaves {he wretch abandoned to the
appetites of a ruined animal. In this deplora-
ble condition, reputation expires, business fal-
ters and becomes perplexed, and temptations to
drink multiply as inclination to do so increases,
and the power of resistance declines. And
now the vortex roars, and the struggling victim
buffets the fiery wave with feebler stroke, and
warning supplication, until despair flashes upon
his Foul, and with an outcry that pierces the
heavens, he ceases to strive, and disappears.

A sin so terrific should be detected in its
origin and strangled in the cradle ; but ordina-
rily, instead of this, the habit is fix?d, and the
hope of reformation is gone, before the subject
has the least suspicion of danger. It is of vast
importance therefore, tluvt the various ocpasions
of intemperance should be clearly described,
that those whose condition is not irretrievable,
may perceive their danger, and escape, and that
all who are free, may be warned off from these
places of temptation and ruin. For the benefit
of the young, especially,'! propose to lay down
a map of the way to destruction, and * rear a
monument of warning -non every sput where
a wayfaring man has been encaared and de-
stroyed.

OF INTEMPERANCE. 17

The first occasion of intemperance which I
shall mention, is found in the free and frequent
use of ardent spirits in the family, as an^incen
tiv% to appetite, an alleviation of lassitude', or an
excitement to cheerfulness. In these reiterated
indulgences, children are allowed to partake,
and the tender organs of their stomachs are
early perverted, and predisposed to habits of
intemperance. No family, it is believed, accus-
tomed to the daily use of ardent spirits, ever
failed to plant the seeds of that dreadful disease,
which sooner or later produced a harvest of wo.
The material of so much temptation and mis-
chief, ought not to be allowed a place in the
family, except only as ' a medicine, and 'even
then it would be safer in the hands of the
apothecary, to be sent for like other medicine,
when prescribed.

Ardent spirits, given as a matter of hospitali-
ty, is not unfrequently the -occasion of intempe-
rance. In this case the temptation is a stated
inmate of the family. The utensils are present,
and the occasions for their use are not unfre-
quent. And when there is no guest, the sight
of the liquor, the state of the health, or even
lassitude of spirits, may indicate the p'ropriety of
the " prudent use," until the prudent use be-
comes, by repetition, habitual use — and habitual
use becomes irreclaimable intemperance. In
this manner, doubtless, has many a father, and
mother, and son, and daughter, beea ruined
forever.

2*

18 THE NATURE 'AND OCCASIONS

Of the guests, also, who partake in this family
hospitality, the number is not small, who be-
com<* ensnared; especially among those whose
profession calls them to visit families often, and
many on the same day. Instead of being re-
garded, therefore, as an act of hospitality, and
a token of friendship, to invite our friends to
drink, it ought to be regarded as an act of in-
civility, to place ourselves and them in circum-
stances of such high temptation.

Days of public convocation are extensively
the occasions of excess which eventuate in in
temperance. The means and temptations are
ostentatiously multiplied, and multitudes go forth
prepared and resolved to yield to temptation,
while example and exhilarated feeling secure
the ample fulfilment of their purpose. — But
when the habit is once acquired of drinking
even " prudently," as it will be called, on all the
days of public convocation which occur in a
year, a desire will be soon formed of drinking at
other times, until the healthful appetite of nature
is superseded by the artificial thirst produced by
ardent spirits.

Evening resorts for conversation, enlivened by
the cheering bowl, have proved fatal to thou-
sands. Though nothing should be boisterous,
and all should seem only the " feast of reason,
and the flow of soul," yet at the latter end it
biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder :
many a wretched man has shaken his chains
and cried out in the anguish of his spirit, oh !

OP INTEMl'ERAM E. 19

that accursed resort ol social drinking ; theremy
> bands were bound and my feet put in fetters ;
there I went a freeman and became a slave,- a
temperate man and became a drunkard. -

In the same class of high temptation are to be
ranked all convivial associations for the purpose
of drinking, with or without gambling, and late
hours. There is nothing •uhich young men of
spirit feai less, thin the exhilaration of drinking
on such occasions , nor any thing which they
fire, less able to resist, than the charge of cow-
ardice when challenged to drink. But there id
no one form of temptation before which moie
young men of promise have fallen into irretriev-
able ruin. The connexion between sucL begin-
nings and a fatal e:id is so manifest, and the
presumptuous daring of Heaven is so great, that
God in his righteous displeasure is accustomed
to withdraw his protection and abandon the
sinner tft his own way.

Feeble health and mental depression ara *o be
lAimbered among the occasions of intemperance.
The vital sinking, and muscular debility, and
mental darkness, are for a short time alleviated
by the application of stimulants. But the cause
of this momentary alleviation i? applied and re-
peated, until the habit of excessive drinking is
formed find has become irresistible.

Medical prescriptions have no doubt contri-
buted to increase the number of the intempe-
rate. Ardent spirits, administered in the form
of bitters, or as tbe medium of other medicine,

20 THB NATURE ANI> OCCASIONS

have let in the destroyer ; and while the patient
was seeking health at the hand of the physician,
HE was dealing out debility and death.

The distillation of ardent spirits fails not to
raise up around the establishment a generation
of drunkards. The cheapness of the article,
and the ease with which families can provide
themselves with large quantities, the nroJuct of
their own labor, eventuate in frequent drinking,
and wide spread intemperance.

The vending of ardent spirits, in places licen
sed or unlicensed, is a tremendous evil. Here,
those who have no stated employment loiter
away the day for a few potations of rum, and
here, those who have finished the toils of the
day meet to spend a vacant hour ; none content
to be lookers on : all drink, and none for any
length of time drink temperately. Here too the
children of a neighborhood, drawn in by entice-
ments, associate for social drinking, and the
exhibition of courage and premature manhood.
And here the iron hand of the monster is fas-
tened upon them, at a period when they ought
not to have been beyond the reach of maternal
observation.

The continued habit of dealing out ardent
spirits, in various forms and mixtures, leads also
to frequent tasting, and tasting to drinking, and
drinking to tippling, and tippling to drunken-
ness.

A resort to ardent spirits as an alleviation of
trouble, results often in habits of confirmed in-

OF INTEMPERANCE. 21

temperance. The loss of friends, perplexities
of business, or the wreck of property, bring
upon the spirits rhe distractions of caie and the
pressure of sorrow ; and, instead of casting their
cares jpou the Lord, they resort to the exhilarat-
ing draught, but, before the occasion for it has
ceased, the remedy itself has become a calami-
ty more intolerable than the disease. Before,
the woes were temporary; now, they have mul-
tiplied and have become eternal.

Ardent spirits employed to invigorate the in-
tellect, or restore exhausted nature under severe
study, is often a fatal experiment. Mighty men
have been cast down in this manner never to
rise. The quickened circulation does for a time
.invigorate intellect and restore exhausted na-
ture. But, for the adventitious energy imparted,
it exhausts the native energy of the soul, and
incaces that faintncss of heart, and flagging of
the spiiits, which cry incessantly, "give, give,"
and never, but with expiring breath, say it is
enough.

The use of ardent spirits, employed as an
auxiliary to labor, is among the most fatal, be-
cause the most common and least suspected,
causes of intemperance: It is justified as inno-
cent, it is insisted on as necessary : but no fact
is more completely established by experience
than th>i it is utterly useless, and ultimately in-
jurious, beside all the fearful evils of habitual in-
temperance, to which it so often leads. THERE

IS NO NUTRITION IN ARDENT SPIRIT. ALL THAT

22 THE NATURE AND OCCASIONS

IT DCES IS, TO CONCENTRATE THE STRENGTH OF
THE SYSTEM FOR THE TIME, BEYOND ITS CA-
PACITY FOR. JIEGULAR EXERTION. It Is boiTOwing

strength for aw occasion, which will be needed
foi1 futurity, without any provision ibr payment,
and with the certainty of ultimate bankruptcy.

The early settlers of New-England endured
more hardship, and performed more labor, and
carried through life more health and vigor, than
appertains to the existing generation of labor-
ing men. And they did it without the use of
ardent spirits.

Let two men, of equal age and firmness of
constitution, labor together through the sum-
mer, the one wiih and the other without the ex-
citement of ardent spirits, and the latter will
come out at the end with unimpaired vigor,
while the other will be comparatively exhausted.
Ships navigated as some now are without ihe
habitual use of ardent spirits — and maLufactur-
ing establishments carried on without — and ex-
tended agricultural operations — all move on with
better industry, more peace, more health, and a
better income to the employers and the employ-
ed. The workmen are cheerful and vigorous,
friendly and industrious, and their families are
thrif'y, \vell fed, well clothed and instructed ;
and instead of distress and poverty, and dis-
appointment and contention — they an* » heered
with the full flow of social affection, and often by
the sustaining power of religion. But where ar-
dent spirit is received as a tlaily auxiliary to la-

»F INTEMPERANCE. 28

bor, it is commonly taken at stated times — the
habit soon creates a vacancy in the stomach,
which indicates at length the hour of the day
with as much accuracy as a clock. It will be
taken besides, fr^quciidy, at other times which
will accelerate the destruction of nature's health-
ful tone, create artificial debility, and the neces-
sity of artificial excitement to remove it; and
when so much has been consumed as the eco-
nomy of the employer can allow, the growing de-
mand will be supplied by the evening and morn-
ing dram, from the wages of labor — until the
appetite has become insatiable, and the habit of
intemperance nearly universal — until the nervous
excitability has obliterated the social sensibilities,
and turned the family into a' scene of babbling
and wo — until voracious appetite has eaten up
the children's bread, and abandoned them to ig-
norance and crime — until conscience has become
callous, and fidelity and industry have disappear-
ed, except as the result of eye service ; and wan-
ton wastefulness and contention, and reckless
wretchedness characterize the establishmeut

SERMON II.

THE SIGNS OF INTEMPERANCE.

1'uovERBS, xxiii. 29--S5.

V o hath wo ' who hath sorrow ? who Iiatli contentions f wliu
li.iu adMini!? who hath wounds without cause.' who hath red-
nesi •>! i

lv. ey that tarry long at the wjie ; they that go to seek mixed
wiii-<.

Look not Ihon 11(11.11 the wine when it is red, when it giveth his
roli'iir in tin- cup, wli.Mi it inovetli itself aright. At the last it
niu-th like ti serpent, ai;d stiiitfeth like an- adder. Thine eye shall
bt-li.ilil siraum- women, and th'iie heart shall utter perverse things.
Yt-a, tin MI shalt be as he that lietb down in the midst of the sea,
or as ho that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken
UK', shall thou say, and I was not sick ; they have beaten me, and
I felt it not : when shall I awake ? 1 will seek it yet again.

IN the preceding discourse I considered the
nature and occasions of intemperance. In this
1 shall disclose some of the symptoms of this
fearful malady, as they affect both the body and
the mind, that every one, who is in any degree
addicted to the sin, may be apprised of his dan-
ger, and save himself before it be too late.

In the early stages of intemperance reforma-
tion is practicable. The calamity is, that intem-
perance is a sin so deceitful, that most men go
3

26 THE SIGNS

on to irretrievable ruin, warned indeed by many
indications, but unavailing!]*, because they un-
derstand not their( voice.

It is of vast importance, tberefore, that the
symptoms of intemperance should be universally
and familiarly known ; the efl'ects of the sin
upon the body, and upon the mind, should be
so described in all its stages, from .the begin-
ning to the end, that every one may see, and
feel, and recognise these harbingers of death
as soon as they begin to show themselves upon
him.

1. One of the early indications of intempe-
rance may be found in the associations of time
and place.

In the commencement of this evil habit, there
are many who drink to excess only on particular
days, such as days for military exhibition, the
anniversary of our independence, the birth-day
of Washington, Christmas, new year's day,
election, and others of the like nature. When
any of these holidays arrive, and they come as
often almost as saints' days in the calendar,
they bring with them, to many, the insatiable
desire of drinking, as well AS a dispensation
from the sin, as efficadious and quieting to the
conscience, as papal indulgences.

There are "some I am aware that have recom-
mended the multiplication of holidays and public
amusements, as a remedy for intemperance : —
about as wise a prescription — as the multiplying
gambling houses to supersede gambling, or the

OF INTEMPERANCE. 27

building of theatres to correct the evils of the

stage.

There arc others who feel the desire of drink-
ing stirred up within them by the associations
of place. They could go from end to end of a
day's journey witho-:* ardent spirits, were there
no taverns on the road. But the very sight of
these receptacles of pilgrims awakens the desire
"just to step in and take something." And so
powerful docs this association become, that many
will no more pass the tavern than they would
pass a fortified place with all the engines of
death directed against them. There are in every
city, town, and village, places of resort, which in
like manner, as soon as the eye falls upon them,
cieate the thirst of drinking, and many, who,
coming to market or on business, pass near
them, pay toll there as regularly as they do at
the gates ; and sometimes both when they come
in and when they go out. In cities and their
suburbs, there are hundreds of shops at which a
large proportion of those who bring in produce
slop regularly to receive the customary beverage.

In every community , you may observe par-
tkular persons also who can never meet without
feeling the simultaneous desire of strong drink.
What can be the reason of this? All men,
when they meet, are not affected thus. It is not
uncommon for ma,n of similar employments to
be drawn by association, when they meet, to the
same topics of conversation : — physicians, upon
the concerns of their profession : — politicians,

28 THE SIGNS

upon the events of the day : — and Christians,
when they meet, are drawn hy a common inte-
rest to speak of the things of the kingdom of
God. But this is upon the principle of a com-
mon interest in tLese subjects, which has no
slight hold upon the thoughts and affections.
Whoever then finds himself tempted on meeting
his companion or friend to say, ' come and let
us go and take something,' or, to make it his
first business to set out his decanter and glasses,
ought to understand that he discloses his own
inordinate attachment to ardent spirits, and ac-
cuses his friend of intemperance.

2. A disposition to multiply the circumstances
which furnish the occasions and opportunities
for drinking, may justly create alarm that the
habit is begun. When you find occasions for
drinking in all the variations of the weather,
because it is so hot or so cold — so wet or so
dry — and in all the different states of the sys-
tem— when you are vigorous, that you need not
tire — and when tired, that your vigor may be
restored, you have approached near to that state
of intemperance in which you will drink in all
states of the weather, and conditions of the
body, and will drink with these pretexts, and
drink without them whenever their frequency
may not suffice. In like manner if, on your
farm, or in your store, or workshop, or on board
your vessel, you love to multiply the catches and
occasions of drinking, in the forms of treats for
new comers — for mistakes — for new articles of

OP INTEMPERANCE. 29

dress — or furniture — until in some places a man
can scarcely wear an article of dress, or receive
one of equipage or furniture, \\ Inch has not been
"wet," you may rely on it that all these usirges,
and rules, and laws, are devices -to gratify an
inordinate and dangerous love of strong drink;
and though the master of the shop should not
himself come down to such little measures, yet
if he permits such things to be done, if he hears,
and sees, and smiles, and sometimes sips a little
of the forfeited beverage, his heart is in the
thing, and he is under the influence of a danger-*
ous love of that hilarity which is produced by
strong drink.

3. Whoever finds the desire of drinking ar-
dent spirits returning daily at stated times, is
warned to deny himself instantly, if he intends
to escape confirmed intemperance.

It is infallible evidence that you have already
done violence to nature — that the undermining
process is begun — that the over- worked organ
begins Jo flag, and cry out for adventitious aid,
with an importunity which, if indulged, will be-
. come more deep toned, and importunate, and
irresistible, until the power of self-denial is
gone, and you ate a ruined man. It is the vor-
tex begun, which, if not checked, will become
more capacious, and deep, and powerful, and
loud, until the interests of time and eternity are
engulfed.

It is here then — beside this commencing vor-
tex— that I would take my stand, to warn off
3*

30 . THE" SIGNS

the heedless navigator from destruction. To all
who do but heave in sight, and with voice that
should rise above the winds and waves, I would
cry — " stand off! ! !" — spread the sail, ply the
oar, for death is here — and could I command
the elements — the blackness of darkness should
gather over this gate-way to hell — and loud
thunders should utter their voices — and lurid
fires should blaze — and the groans of unearthly
voices should be heard — inspiring consternation
and flight in all who came near. For this is the
parting point between those who forsake danger
and hide themselves, and the foolish who pass on
and are punished. He who escapes this period-
ical thirst of times and seasons, will not be a
drunkard, as he who comes .within the reach of
this powerful attraction will be sure to perish. It
may not be certain that every one will become a
sot ; but it is certain that every one will enfeeble
his body, generate disease, and shorten his days.
It may not be certain that every one will sacrifice
his reputation, or squander his property, and die
in the alms house ; but it is certain that a large
proportion will come to poverty and infaniy, of
those who yield daily to the periodical appetite
for ardent spirits. Here is the. stopping place,
and though beyond it men may struggle, and
retard, and modify their progress, none, com-
paratively, who go by it, will return again to
purity of enjoyment, and the sweets of temperate
liberty. The servant has become the master,
and, with a rod of iron and a whip of scorpions,

OP INTEMPERANCE. 31

he will torment, even before their time, the can-
didates for misery in a future state.

4. Another sign of intemperance may be
found in the desire of concealment. When a
man finds himself disposed to drink oftener, and
more than he is willing to do before his family
and the world, and begins to drink slily and in
secret places, he betrays a consciousness that he
is disposed to drink more than to others will ap-
pear safe and proper, and what he suspects others
may think, he ought to suppose they have cause
to think, and reform instantly. For now he has
arrived at a period in the history of intempe-
rance, where, if he does not stop, he will hasten
on to ruin with accelerated movement. So long
as the eye of friendship and a regard to pub-
lic observation kept him within limits, there
was some hope of reformation ; but when he
cuts this last cord, and launches out alone with
his boat and bottle, he has committed himself to
mountain waves and furious winds, and probably
will never return.

5. When a man allows himself to drink al-
ways in company so much as he may think he
can bear without awakening in others the suspi-
cion of inebriation, he will deceive himself, and
no one beside. For abused nature herself will
publish the excess in the bloated countenance,
and flushed visage, and tainted breath, and in-
flamed e.ye ; and were all these banners of in-
temperance struck, the man with his own tongue
will reveal his shame. At first there will be

32 THE SIGNS

something strange in his appearance or conduct,
to awaken observation, and induce scrutiny,
until <xt length, with all his carefulness, in some
unguarded moment he will take more than he
can bear. And now the secret is out, and these
unaccountable things are explained ; these ex-
posures v (1 become more frequent, the unhappy
man still dreaming that though he erred a little,
he took such good care to conceal it, that no
one knew it but himself. He will even talk
when his tongue is palsied, to ward off suspicion,
and thrust himself into company, to show that
he is not drunk.

6. Those persons who find themselves for
some cause always irritated when efforts are
made to suppress intemperance, and moved by
some instinctive impulse to make opposition,
ought to examine instantly whether the love of
ardent spirits is not the cause of it.

Au aged country merchant, of an acute mind
and sterling reputation, once suid to me, " I
never knew an attempt made to suppress intem-
perance, which was not opposed by some per-
sons, from whom I should not have expected
opposition } and I never failed to find, first or
last, that these persons were themselves impli-
cated -in the sin." Temperate men seldom if
ever oppose the-reformation of intempeiance.

7. We now approach some "tf those symp-
toms of intemperance which abused nature first
or last never fails to give.

The eyes. Who hath redness of eyes ? All

OP INTEMPERANCE. 38

are not of course intemperate whose visual or-
gans become inflamed and weak. But there are
few intemperate persons who escape this malady,
and yet when it comes, they have no suspicion
of the cause — speak of it without embarrassment
— and wonder what the matter can be — apply to
the physician for eye water, and drink on. But
every man who is accustomed to drink ardent
spirits freely, whose eye begins to redden and to
weep, ought to know what the matter is, and to
take warning ; it is one of the signals which dis-
tressed nature holds out and waves in token of
distress.

Another indication of intemperance is found
in the fulness and redness of the countenance.
It is not the fulness and freshness of health — but
rather the plethora of a relaxed fibre and peccant
humours, which come to occupy the vacancy of
healthful nutrition, and to mar the countenance
with pimples and inflammation. All are not in-
temperate of course who are affected with dis-
eases of the skin. But no hard drinker carries
such a face without a guilty and specific cause,
and it is another signal of distress which abused
nature holds out, while she cries for help.

Another indication of intemperance may be
found in impaired muscular strength and tremour
of the hand. Now the destroyer, in his mining
process, approaches the citadel of life, and is ad-
vancing fast to make the keepers of the house
tremble, and the strong men bow themselves.
This relaxation of the joints, and trembling of the

34 THE SIGNS

nerves, will be experienced especially in the
morning — when the system, unsustained by
sleep, has run down. Now all is relaxed, trem-
ulous, and faint-hearted. The the which spar-
kled in the eye, the evening before, is quenched
— the courage which dilated the heart is passed
away — and Ihe tones of eloquence, which dwelt
on the inspired tongue, are turned into pusillani-
mous complainings, until opium, or bitters, or
both, are thrown into the stomach to wind up
again the run-down machine.

And now the liver, steeped in fire, begins to
contract, and refuses to perform its functions, in
preparing the secretions which are necessary to
aid digestion ; and loss of appetite ensues; and
indigestion, and fermentation, and acidity, begin
to rob the system of nutrition, and to vex and
irritate the vital organ, filling the stomach with
air, and the head with fumes, and the soul with
darkness and terror.

This reiterated irritation extends by sympathy
to the lungs, which become inflamed and lace-
rated, until hemorrhage ensues. And now the
terrified victim hastens to the physician to stay
the progress of >a consumption, which intempe-
rance has begun, and which medical treatment,
while the cause continues, cannot arrest.

About this time the fumes of the scalding
furnace below begin to lacerate the throat, and
blister the tongue and the lip. Here again the
physician is called in to ease these torments ; but
until the fires beneath are extinct, what can the

OP INTEMPERANCE. 35

physician do ? He can no more alleviate these
woes than he can carry alleviation to the tor-
mented, in the Humes for which these are the
sad preparations.

Another indication of intemperance is irrita-
bility, petulance, and violent anger. The great
organ of nervous sensibility has been brought
into a state of tremulous excitement. The slight-
est touch causes painful vibrations, and irri-
. tations, which defy self-government. — The tem-
per becomes like the flash of powder, or un-
governable and violent as the helm driven hither
and thither by raging winds, and mountain
wa\

Another indication of intemperance is to be
found in the extinction of all the finer feelings
and amiable dispositions of the soul; and, if
there have ever seemed to be religious affections,
of these also. The fiery stimulus has raised the
organ of sensibility above the power of excite-
ment by motives addressed to the finer feelings
of the soul, and of the moral nature, and left the
man a prey to animal sensation. You might as
well fling out music upon the whirlwind to stay
its course, as to govern the storm within by the
gentler feelings of humanity. The only stimu-
lant which now has power to move, is ardent
spirits — and he who has arrived at this condition
is lost. He has left far behind the wreck of
what he once was. He is not the same husband,
or father, or brother, or friend. The sea has
made a clear breach over him, and swept away

36 THE SIGNS

forever whatsoever things are pure, and lovely,
and of good report.

And as to religion, if he ever seemed to have
any, all such affections declined as the emotions
of artificial stimulants arose, until conscience has
lost its power, or survives only with vulture
scream to flap the wing, and terrify the soul. His
religious affections are dead when he is sober, and
rise only to emotion and loquacity and tears when
he is drank. Dead, twice dead, is he — whatever
may have been the hopes he once indulged, or
the evidence he once gave, or the hopes he once
inspired. For drunkards, no more than mur-
derers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

• As the disease makes progress, rheumatic
pains diffuse themselves throughout the system.
The man wonders what can be the reason that
he should be visited by such a complication of
disease, and again betakes himself to the physi-
cian, and tries every remedy but the simple one
of temperance. For these pains are only the
murmurings and 'complainings of nature, through
all the system giving signs of wo, that all is lost.
For to rheumatic pains ensues a debility of the
system, which becoming unable to sustain the
circulation, the fluids fall first upon the feet,
and, as the deluge rises, the chest is invaded, and
the breath is shortened, until by a sudden inunda-
tion it is stopped. Or, if in this form death is
avoided, it is only to be met in another — more
dilatory but no less terrific ; for now comes on
the last catastrophe — the sudden prostration of

OF INTEMPERANCE. 37

strength and appetite — an increased difficulty of
raising the ebbing tide of life by stimulants — a
few panic struck reformations, just on the sides
of the pit, until the last sinking comes, from
which there is no resurrection but by the trump
of God, and at the judgment day.

And now the woes, and the sorrows, and the
contentions, and the wounds, and babblings, are
over — the red eye sleeps — the tortured body
rests — the deformed visage is hid from human
observation — and the soul, while the dust crum-
bles back to dust, returns to God who gave it, to
receive according to the deeds done in the body.

Such is the evil which demands a remedy.
And what can be done to stop its lavages and
rescue its victims ?

This is not the place to say all that belongs
to this part of the subject, but we cannot close
without saying by anticipation a few things here;
and,

1. There should be extended through the
community an all-p ervading sense of the danger
there is of falling into this sin. Intemperance is
a disease as well as a crime, and were any other
disease, as contagious, of as marked symptoms,
and as mortal, to pervade the land, it would
create universal consternation : for the plague is
scarcely more contagious or deadly ; and yet we
mingle fearlessly with the diseased, and in spite
of admonition we bring into our dwellings the
contagion, apply it to the lip, and receive it into
the system.

4

38 THE SIGNS

I know that much is said about the prudent
use of ardent spirits ; but we might as well
speak of the prudent use of the plague — of fire
handed prudently around among powder — of
poison taken prudently every day — or of vipers
and serpents iiuroduced prudently into our dwel-
lings, io glide about as a matter of courtesy to
visitors, and of amusement to our children.

First or last, in spite of your prudence, the
contagion will take — the fatal spark will fall
upon the train — the deleterious poison will tell
upon the system — and the fangs of the serpent
will inllict death. There is no prudent use of
ardent spirits, but when it is used as a medicine.
All who receive it into the system are not de-
stroyed by it. But if any, vegetable were poi-
sonous to as many, as the use of ardent spirits
proves destructive, it would be banished from
the table ; it would not be prudent to use it at all.
If in attempting to cross a river upon an elastic
beam — as many should fall in and be drowned,
as • attempt to use ardent spirits prudently and
rail, the attempt to cross in that way would be
abandoned — there would be no prudent use of
that mode of crossing. The effect of attempting
to use ardent spirits prudently, is destructive to
feach multitudes, as precludes the possibility of
prudence in tlie use of it. When we consider
the deceitful nature of this sin, and its irresistible
poxver when it has obtained an ascendency — no
man can use it prudently — or without mocking
God can pray while he uses it, " lead us not into

OP INTEMPERANCE. 39

temptation." There is no necessity for using it
at all, and it is presumptuous to Jo so.

2. A wakeful recollection should be maintain-
ed of the distinction between intemperance and
drunkenness. So long as men suppose that there
is neither crime nor danger in drinking, short of
what they denominate drunkenness, they will
cast off fear and move onward to ruin by a silent,
certain course, until destruction comes upon
them, and they cannot escape.. It should be
known therefore and admitted, that to drink dai-
ly, at stated times, any quantity of ardent spirits,
is intemperance, or to drink periodically as often
as days, and times, and seasons, may funush
temptation and opportunity, is intemperance. It
may not be for any one time the intemperance
of animal or mental excitement, but it is an in
novation upon the system, and the beginning of
a habit, which cannot fail to generate disease,
and will not be pursued by one hundred men
without producing many drunkards.

It is not enough therefore to erect the flag
ahead, to mark the spot where the drunkard dies.
It must be planted at the entrance cf his course,
proclaiming in waving capitals — THIS is THE
WAV TO DEATH ! ! Over the whole territory of
" prudent use," it must wave and warn. For if
we cannot stop men in the beginning, we cannot
separate between that and the end. He who
lets ardent spirits alone before it -is meddled
with, is safe, and he only. It should be in every
family a contraband article, or if it is admitted,

40 THE SIGNS

it should be allowed for medical purposes only.
It should be labelled as we label laudanum — and

TOUCH NOT, TASTE NOT, HANDLE NOT, should

me^t the eye on every vessel which contains it.

Children should be taught early the nature,
symptoms, and danger of this sin, that they may
not unwittingly fall under its power. To save
my own children from this sin has been no small
part of my solicitude as a parent, and I can
truly say, that should any of my children perish
in this way, they will not do it ignorantly, nor
unearned. I do not remember that I ever gave
permission to a child to go out on a holiday, or
gave a pittance of money to be expended for his
gratification, unattended by the earnest injunc-
tion, not to drink ardent spirits, or any in"briat-
ing liquor; and I. cannot but believe, that if
proper exertions are made in the family to ap-
prise children of the nature and danger of this
sin, and to put them on their guard against it —
opinions and feelings and habits might be so
formed,. that the whole youthful generation might
rise up as a rampart, against which the fiery
waves of intemperance would dash in vain,
saying, hitherto shalt thou come, but r- farther,
and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. To
all our schools instruction on this subject should
be communicated, and the Sabbath schools now
spreading through the land, may in this manner
lend a mighty influence to prevent the intempe-
rance of the rising generation.

In respect to the reformation of those over

OF INTEMPERANCE. 41

whom the habit of intemperance has obtained an
ascendency, there is but one: alternative — they
must resolve upon immediate and entire absti-
nence.

Some have recommended, and many have at-
tempted, a gradual discontinuance. But no man's
jmulfiice and fortitude are equal to the task of
reformation in this way. If the patient were in
close confinement, where he could not help him-
self, he might be dealt with in this manner, but
it would bi: cruelly protracting a course of suffer-
ing through months, which might be ended in a
few days. But no man, at liberty, will reform
by gradual retrenchment. — Substitutes" have also
been recommended as the means of reformation,
such as opium, which is only another mode of
producing inebriation, is often a temptation to
intemperance, and not ^infrequently unites its
own forces with those of ardent spirits to impair
health, and destroy life. It is a preternatural
stimulant, raising excitement above the tone- of
health, and predisposing the system for intem-
perate drinking. ,

Strong beer has been recommended as a sub-
stitute for ardent spirits, and a means of leading
back the captive to health and liberty. But
though it may not create intemperate habits as
soon, it has no power to allay them. It will
finish even what ardent spirits have begun — and
with this difference only, that it doer; not rasp
the vita! organs with quite so keen a fne — and
enables the victim to come down to his grave, by
4*

42 THE SIGNS

a course somewhat more dilatory, and with more
of the good natured stupidity of the idiot, and
less of the demoniac frenzy of the madman.

Wine has been prescribed as a means of de-
coying the intemperate from the ways of death.
But habit cannot be thus cheated put of its do-
minion, nor ravening appetite be amused down
to a sober and temperate demand. If it be true
that men do not become intemperate on wine, it
is not true that wine will restore the intempe-
rate, or stay the progress of the disease. Enough
must be taken to screw up nature to the tone oi
cheerfulness, or she will cry " give," with an
importunity not to be resisted, and long before
the work of death is done, wine will fail to min-
ister a stimulus of sufficient, activity to rouse
the flagging spirits, or will become acid on the
enfeebled stomach, and brandy and opium will
be called in to hasten to its consummation the
dilatory work of self-destruction. So that if no
man becomes a sot upon wine, it is only because
it hands him over to more fierce and terrible
executioners of Heaven's delayed vengeance.

If in any instance wine suffices to complete
the work of ruin, then the difference is only that
the victim is stretched longer upon the rack,
to die in torture with the gout, while ardent
spirits finish life by a shorter and perhaps less
painful course.

Retrenchments and substitutes then are idle,
and if in any case they succeed, it is not in one
of a thousand. It is the tampering of an infant

OP INTEMPERANCE. 43

with a giant, the effort of a kitten to escape
fiom the paw of a lion.

There is no remedy for intemperance .but
the cessation of it. Nature must be released
from the unnatural war which is made upon her,
and be allowed to rest, and then nutrition, and
sleep, and exercise, will perform the work of
restoration. Gradually the spring of life will re-
cover tone, appetite will return, digestion become
efficient, sleep sweet, and the muscular system
vigorous, until the elastic heart with every be*t
shall send health through the system, and joy
through the soul.

But what shall be done for those to whom it
might be fatal to stop short ? Many are reputed
to be in this condition, probably, who are not —
and those who are, may, while -under the care
of a physician, be dealt with, as he may think
best for the time, provided they obey strictly as
patients his prescriptions. But if, w hen they are
committed to their own care again, thoy cannot
live without ardent spirits — then they must die,
and have only the alternative to die as refoimed
penitents, or as incorrigibly intemperate — to die
in a manner which shall secure pardon and
admission to heaven, or in a manner which shall
exclude them forever from that holy world.

As the application of this discourse, I would
recommend to every one of you who hear it,
immediate and faithful self-examination, to as-
certain whether any of the symptoms of intem-
perance are beginning to show themselves upon

44 THE SIGNS

you. And let not the consideration that you
have never been suspected, and have never
suspected yourselves of intemperance, deprive
you of the benefit of this scrutiny. For it is
inattention and self-confidence which supersede
discretion, and banish fear, and let in the de-
stroyer, to fasten upon his victim, before he
thinks of danger or attempts resistance.

Are there then set times, days, and places,
when you calculate always to indulge yourselves
711 drinking ardent spirits ? Do you stop often
lo take something at the tavern when you travel,
and always when you come to the village, town,
or city. This frequency of drinking will plant
in your system, before you are aware of it, the
seeds of the most terrific disease which aHlicts
humanity. Have you any friends or compan-
ions whose presence, when you meet them,
awakens the thought and the desire of drink-
ing ? Both of you have entered on a course in
which there is neither safety n^r hope, but from
instant retreat.

Do any of you love to avail yourselves of
every little catch and circumstance among your
companions, to bring out " a treat ?" " Alas,
my lord, there is death in ihe p"»t."

Do you find the desire of strong drink return-
ing daily, and at stated hours? Unless you in-
tend to travel all the length of the highway of
intempeiarice, it is time to stop. Unless you
intend soon to resign your liberty forever, and
come under a despotism of the most cruel and

OF INTEMPERANCE. 45

inexorable character, you must abandon the
morning bitters, the noontide stimulant, and
the evening bowl.

Do any of you drink in secret, because you
are unwilling your friends or the world should
know how much you drink ? You might as
well cut loose in a frail boat before a hurricane,
and expect safety : you are gone, gone irretriev-
ably, if you do not stop.

Are you accustomed to drink, when opportu-
nities present, as much as you can bear without
any public tokens of inebriation ? You are an
intemperate man now, and unless you check the
habit, you will become rapidly more and more
intemperate, until concealment becomes impos-
sible.

Do your eyes, in any instance, begin to trou-
ble you by their weakness or inflammation ? If
you are in the habit o( drinking ardent spirits
daily, you need not ask the physician what is
the matter — nor inquire for eye water. Your
redness of eyes is produced by intemperance;
and abstinence, and that only, will cure them.
It may be well for every man who drinks daily,
to look in the glass often, that he may see in his
own face the signals of distress, which abused
nature holds out one after another, and top often
holds out in vain.

Do any of yo'i find a tremour of the hand
coming upon you, and sinking of spirits, and
loss of appetite in the moriiing ? Nature is fail-

46 THE SIGNS OF INTEMPERANCE.

ing, and giving to you timely admonition of her
distress.

Do the pains of a disordered stomach, and
blistered tongue and lip, begin to torment you ?
You are far advanced in the work of self-destruc-
tion— a few more years will probably finish it.

SERMON III.

THE EVILS OF INTEMPERANCE.

HABAKKUK, ii. 9—11, 15, 16.

Wo to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that
ne rn-iy set his nest on high, that lie may be delivered from the
power of evil ! Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting
off many people, and hast sinned against thy srul. For the stone
shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall an-
swer it.

Wo unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bot-
tle to him, and makrst him drunken also, that thoii mayest look on
their nakedness I Thou art rilled with shame for glory : drink thou
also, and let thy fcreskin be uncovered : the cup of the LORD'S right
band shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on
thy glory.

IN the preceding discourses we have illus-
trated THE NATURE, THE OCCASIONS, AND THE
SYMPTOMS OF INTEMPERANCE.

In this discourse we propose to illustrate THE

EVILS OF INTEMPERANCE.

The physical and moral influence of this sin
upon its victims, has of necessity been disclosed
in giving an account of the causes and symptoms
of this crimina1 disease. We shall therefore take
a more comprehensive view of the subject, ani

48 THE EVILS

consider the effect of intemperance upon nation
al prosperity. To this view of the suhject the
text leads us'. It announces the general princi-
ple, that communities which rise by a violation
of the laws of humanity and equity, shall not
prosper, and especially that wealth amassed by
promoting intemperance, will bring upon the
community intemperance, and poverty, and
shaim, as a providential retribution.

1. The effects of intemperance upon the
health and physical energies of a nation, are
not to be overlooked, or lightly esteemed.

No fact is more certain than the transmission
of temperament and of physical constitution, ac-
cording to the predominant moral condition of
society, from age to age. Luxury produces ef-
feminacy, and transmits to other generations im-
becility and disease. Bring up the generation of
the Romans who carried victory over the world,
and place them beside the effeminate Italians of
the present day, and the effect of crime upon
constitution will be sufficiently apparent. Ex-
cesses unmake the man. The stature dwindles,
the joints are loosely compacted, and the mus-
cular fibre lias lost its elastic tone. No giant's
hones will be found in the cemeteries of a nation,
over whom, for centuries, the waves of intempe-
rance have rolled ; and no unwieldy iron armour,
tV.e annoyance and defence of other days, will
be dug up as memorials of departed glory.

The duration of human life, and the relative
amount of health or disease, will manifestly vary

OF INTEMPERANCE. 49

according to the amount of ardent spirits con-
sumed in the land. Even now, no small propor-
tion of the deaths which annually make up our
national bills of mortality, are cases of thos^
who have been brought to an untimely end, and
who have, directly or indir9ctly, fallen victims
to the deleterious influence of ardent spirits ;
fulfilling, with fearful accuracy, the prediction,
" the wicked shall not live out half their days.''
As the jackal follows the lion to prey i:pon the
slain, so Jo disease and death wait on the foot-
steps of inebriation. The free and universal use
of intoxicating liquors for a few centuries cannot
fail to bring down our race from the majestic,
athletic forms of our Fathers, to the similitude
' of a despicable and puny race of men. Already
the commencement of the decline is manifest,
and the consummation of it, should the causes
continue, will not linger.

2. The iLJurious influence of general intem-
perance upon national intellect, is equally cer-
tain, and not less to be deprecated.

To the action of a powerful mind, a vigorous
muscular frame is, as a general rule, indispensa-
ble. Like heavy ordnance, the mind, in its
efforts, recoils on the body, and will soon shake
down a puny frame. The mental action and
physical reaction must be equal — or, finding her
energies unsustaiued, the mind itself becomes
discouraged, and falls into despondency and im-
becility. The flow o/ animal spirits, the fire
and vigor of the imagination, the fulness and
5

50 THE EVILS

power of feeling, the comprehension and grasp
of thought, the tire of the eye, the tones of the
voice, and the electrical energy of utterance, all
depend upon the healthful and vigorous tone of
the animal system, and by whatever means the
body is unstrung, the spirit languishes. Cajsar,
when he had a fever once, and cried " give
me some drink, Titinius," was not that god who
aftenvards overturned the republic, and reigned
without a rival — and Bonaparte, it has been
said, lost the Russian cajnpaign by a fever.
The greatest poets and orators who stand on the
'records of immortality, flourished in the iron age,
before the habits of effeminacy had unharnessed
the body and unstrung the mind. This is true
of Homer, and Demosthenes-, and Milton ; and if
Virgil and Cicero are to be classed with them, it
is not without a manifest abatement of vigor for
beauty, produced by the progress of voluptuous-
ness in the age in which they lived.

The giant writers o/ Scotland are, soice of
them, men of threescore and ten, who still go
forth to the athletic sports of their youthful days
•with undiminished elasticity. The taper fingers
of modern effeminacy never wielded such a pen
as these men wield, and never will.

The taste may be cultivated in alliance with
effeminacy, and music may flourish, while all
that is manly is upon the decline, and there may
be some fitful flashes of imagination in poetry,
which are the offspring of a capricious, nervous
excitability — and perhaps there may be some-

OF INTEMPERANCE. 51

times an unimpassioned stillness of soul in a
feeble body, which shall capacitate for simple
intellectual discrimination. But that fulness of
soul, and diversified energy of mind, which is
indispensable to national went i'i all its diver-
sified application, can be found only in alliance
with an uiulcbased and vigorous muscular sys-
tem.

The history of the world confirms this con-
clusion. Egypt, once at the head of nations,
lias, under the weight of her own efleminacy,
gone down to the dust. The victories of Greece
let in, upon her the luxuries of the east, and
covered her glory with a night of ages. And
Rome, whose iron foot trode down the nations,
and shook the earth, witnessed in her latter
days — faintnes.s of heart — and the shield of the
mighty vilely cast away.

3. The effect of intemperance upon the mili-
tary prowess of a nation, cannot but be great
and evil. The mortality in the seasoning of
recruits, already half destroyed by intemperance,
will be double to that experienced among hardy
and temperate men.

If in the early wars of our country the mor-
tality of the camp had been as great as it has
b^ien since intemperance has facilitated the rais-
ing of recruits, New England would have been
depopulated, Philip had remained lord of his
wilderness, or the French had driven our Fathers
into the sea, extending from Canada to Cape
Horn the empire of despotism and superstition.

52 THE EVILS

An army, whose energy in conflict depends on
the excitement of ardent spirits, cannot possess
the coolness nor sustain the shock of a powerful
onset, like an army of determined, temperate
men. It was the religious principle and tempe-
rance of Cromwell's army, that made it terrible
to the licentious troops of Charles the First.

4. The effect of intemperance upon the pat-
riotism of a nation is neither obscure nor doubtful.
When excess has despoiled the man of the natu-
ral affections of husband, father, brother, and
friend, and thrust him down to the condition of
an animal ; we are not to expect of him compre-
hensive vie;vs, and a disinterested regard for his
country. His patriotism may serv~ as a theme
of sinister profession, or inebriate blasting. But,
what is the patriotism which loves only in words,
and in general, and violates in detail all the
relative duties on which the Avelfare of country
depends !

The man might as well talk of justice and
mercy, who robs and murders upon the highway,
as he whose example is pestiferous, and whose
presence withers the tender charities of life, and
perpetuates weeping, lamentation, jmd wo. A
nation of drunkards would constitute a hell.

5. Upon the national conscience or moral
principle the effects of intemperance are deadly.

It obliterates the fear of the Lord, and a sense
of accountability, paralyses the power of con-
science, and hardens the heart, and turns out
upon society a sordid, selfish, ferocious animal.

OP INTEMPERANCE. 53

6. Upon national industry the effects of intem-
perance are manifest and mischievous. '

The results of national industry depend on
the amount of well-directed intellectual and phy-
sical power. But intemperance paralyses and
•prevents both these springs of human action.

In the inventory of national loss by intempe-
rance, may be set. down — the labor prevented
by indolence, by debility, by sickness, by quar-
rels and litigation, by gambling and idleness, by
mistakes and" misdirected effort, by improvi-
dence and wastefulness, and by the shortened
date of human life and activity. Little wastes
in great establishments constantly occurring
may defeat the energies of a mighty capital.
But where the intellectual and muscular energies
are raised to the working point daily by ardent
spirits, until the agriculture, and commerce,
and arts of a nation move on by the power of
artificial stimulus, that moral power cannot be
maintained, which will guaranty fidelity, and that
physical power cannot be preserved and well
directed, which will ensure national prosperity.
The nation whose immense enterprise is thrust
forward by the stimulus of ardeut spirits, cannot
ultimately escape debility and bankruptcy.

When we behold an individual cut off in
youth, or in middle age, or witness the waning
energies, improvidence, and unfaithfulness of a
neighbor, it is but a single instance, and we
become accustomed to it; but such instances
are multiplying in our land in every direction,
S*

54 THE EVILS

and are to be found in every department of
labor, and the amount of earnings prevented or
squandered is incalculable : to all which must
be added the accumulating and frightful expense
incurred for the support of those and their fami-
lies, whom intemperance has made paupers. In
every city and town the poor-tax, created chielly
by intemperance, is augmenting. The recep-
tacles for the poor are becoming too strait for
their accommodation. We must pull them down
and build greater to provide accommodations for
the votaries of inebriation ; for the frequency of
going upon the town has taken away the reluc-
tance of pride, and destroyed the motives to pro-
vidence which the fear of poverty and suffering
once supplied. The prospect of a destitute old
age, or of a suffering family, no longer troubles
the vicious portion of our community. They
drink up their daily earnings, and bless God for
the poor-house, and begin to look upon it as, of
right, the drunkard's home, and contrive to arrive
thither as early as idleness and excess will give
them a passport to this sinecure of vice. Thus
is the insatiable destroyer of industry marching
through the land, rearing poor-houses, and aug-
menting taxation : night and day, with sleepless
activity, squandering property, cutting the sinews
of industry, unuennimttg vigor, engendering
disease, paralysing intellect, impairing moral
principle, cutting short the date of life, and roll-
ing up a national debt, invisible, but real and
terrific as the debt of England" • continually trans-

OF INTEMPERANCE. 55

ferring larger and larger bodies of men, from the
class of contributors to the national income, to the
class of worthless consumers.

Add the loss sustained by the subtraction of
labor, and the shortened date of life, to the
expense of sustaining the poor, created by intem-
perance; and the nation is now taxed annually
more than the expense which would be requisite
for the maintenance of government, and for the
support of all our schools and colleges, and -all
the religious instruction of the nation. Already
a portion of the entire capital of the nation is
mortgaged for the support of drunkards. There
seems to be no other fast property in the land,
but this inheritance of the intemperate : all other
riches may make to themselves wings and fly
away. But until the nation is bankrupt, accord-
ing to the laws of the State, the drunkard and
his family must have a home. Should the
pauperism of crime augment in this country as
it has done for a few years past, there is nothing
to stop the frightful results which have come upon
England, where property is abandoned in some
parishes, because the poor-tax exceeds the annual
income. You who are husbandmen, are accus-
tomed to feel as if your houses and lands were
wholly your own ; but if you will ascertain the
per centage of annual taxation levied on your
property for the support of the intemperate, you
w ill perceive how much of your capital is held
by drunkards, by a tenure as sure as if held
under mortgages, or deeds of warranty. Your

56 THE EVILS

widows and children do not take by descent
more certainly, than the most profligate and
worthless part of the community. Every intem-
perate and idle man, whom you behold tottering
about the streets and steeping himself at the
stores, regards your houses and lands as pledged
to take care of him, — puts his hands deep, an-
nually, into your pockets, and eats his bread in
the sweat of your brows, instead of his own :
and with marvellous good nature you bear it. If
a robber should break loose on the highway, to
levy taxation, an armed force would be raised to
hunt iiim from society. But the tippler may do
it fearlessly, in open day, and not a voice is
raised, not a finger is lifted.

The effects of intemperance upon civil liberty
may not be lightly passed over.

It is admitted that intelligence and virtue are
the pillars of republican institutions, and that the
illumination of schools, and the moral power of
religious institutions, are indispensable to pro-
duce this intelligence and virtue.

But who are found so uniformly in the ranks
of irreligion as the intemperate? Who like
these violate the Sabbath, and set their mouth
against the heavens — neglecting the education
of their families — and corrupting their mora^?
Almost the entire amount of national ignorance
and crime is the offspring of intemperance.
Throughout the land, the intemperate are hew-
ing down the pillars, and undermining the foun-
dations of our national edifice. Legions have

OF INTEMPERANCE. 57

besieged it, aud upon every gate the battle-axe
rings ; and still the sentinels sleep.

Should the evil advance as it has done, the
day is not far distant when the great body of the
laboring classes of the community, the bones
and sinews of the nation, will be contaminated ;
and when this is accomplished, the right of
suffrage becomes the engine of self-destruction.
For the laboring classes constitute an immense
majority, and when these are perverted by intem-
perance, ambition needs uo better implements
with which to dig the grave of our liberties, and
entomb our glory.

Such is the influence of interest, ambition,
fear, and indolence, that one violent partisan,
with a handful of disciplined troops, may over-
rule the influence of five hundred temperate
men, who act without concert. Already is the
disposition to temporize, to tolerate, and even to
court the intemperate, too apparent, on Account
of the apprehended retribution of their perverted
suffrage. The whole power of law, through the
nation, sleeps in the statute book, and until
public sentiment is roused and concentrated, it
may be doubted whether its execution is pos-
sible. \

Where is the city, town, or village, in which
the laws are not openly violated, and where is
the magistracy that dares to carry into effect the
laws against the vending or drinking of ardent
spirits ? Here then an aristocracy of bad influ-
ence has already risen up, which bids defiance

38 THE EVILS

to law, and threatens the extirpation of civil
liberty. As intemperance increases, the power
of taxation will come more and more into the
hands of men of intemperate habits and despe-
rate fortunes ; of course the laws gradually will
become subservient to the debtor, and less effi-
cacious in protecting the rights of property.
This will be a vital stab to liberty — to ihe secu-
rity of which property is indispensable. For
money is the sinew of war — and when those
who hold the property of a nation cannot be
protected in their rights, they will change the
form of government, peaceably if they may, by
violence if they must.

In proportion to the numbers who have no
right in the soil, and no capital at stake, and no
moral principle, will the nation be exposed to
violence and revolution. In Europe, the phy-
sical power is bereft of the right of suffrage, and
by the bayonet is kept down. But in this nation,
the power which may be wielded by the intem-
perate and ignorant is tremendous. These are
the troops of the future Coesors, by whose per-
verted suffrages our future elections may be
swayed, and ultimately our liberties destroyed.
They are the corps of irreligious and desperate
men, who have something to hope, and nothing
to fear, from revolutiun and blood. Of such
materials w:as the army of Catiline composed,
who conspired against the liberties of Rome.
And iii the French revolution, such men as La-
fayette were soon swept from the helm, by mobs

OF INTEMPERANCE. 59

composed of the dregs of creation, to give place
to the revolutionary furies which followed.

We boast of our liberties, and rejoice in our
prcspecuve instrumentality in disenthralling the
world. But our own foundations rest on the
heaving sides of a burning mountain, through
which, in thousands of places, the fire has burst
out, and is blazing around us. If they cannot
be extinguished, we are undone. Our sun is
fast setting, and the darkness of an endless night
is closing in upon us.

SERMON IV.

THE REMEDY OF INTEMPERANCE.

I1&BAKKUK, ii. 9 — 11, 15, 16.

Wo to him thatcoveteth nn evil covetousness to his house, that
he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the
power of evil ! Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting
off many people, and 1iast sinned against thy soul. For the stone
shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall an-
swer it.

U'o unto him tint giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bot-
tle to him, and niakcsl him drunken also, that thou niayest look on
their nakedness! Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou
also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD'S right
hand shall be turned unto tliee, and shameful spewing shal! be on
thy glory.

WE now come to the inquiry, BY WHAT

MEANS CAN THE EVIL OF INTEMPERANCE BE

STAYED? and the answer is, not by any one
ihing, but by every tin ig which can be pat in
requisition to hem in the army of the destroyer,
and impede his march, and turn him back, and
redeem the land.

Intemperance is a national sic, carrying de-
struction from the centre to every extremity of
the empire, and calling upon the nation to array
itself, en masse, against it.
6

I

62 THE REMEDY

It is in vain to rely alone upon self-govern-
ment, and voluntary abstinence. This, by all
means, should be encouraged and enforced, and
may limit the evil, but can never expel it. Alike
hopeless are all the efforts of the pulpit, and the
press, without something more radical, efficient
and permanent. If knowledge o;:..y, or argu-
ment, or motive, were needed, the task of re-
formation would be easy. But argumtnt may as
well be exerted upon the wind, and motive be
applied to chain dow:i the waves. Thirst, and
the love of filthy lucre, are incorrigible. Many
may be saved b) these means ; but with nothing
more, many will be lost, and the evil will go
down to other ages. Alike hopeless is the attempt
to stop intemperance by mere civil coercion.

There is too much capital vested in the impor-
tation, distillation, and vending of ardent spirits,
and too brisk a demand for their consumption
in the market, to render mere legal enactments
and prohibitions, of sufficient influence to keep
the practice of trafficking in ardent spirits within
safe limits. As well might the ocean be poured
out upon the Andes, and its waters be stopped
from rushing violently down their sides. It
would require an omniscient eye, and an al-
mighty arm, punishing with speedy and certain
retribution all delinquents, to stay the progress
of intemperance in the presence of the all-per-
vading temptation of ardent spirits.

Magistrates WILL NOT, and CANNOT, if they
would, execute the laws against the unlawful

OF INTEMPERANCE. 63

rending and drinking of ardent spirits, amid a
population who hold the right of suffrage, and
are in favor of free indulgence. The effort,
before the public sentiment was prepared for it,
would hurl them quick from their elevation, and
exalt others who would be no terror to evil
doer's. Our Fathers could enforce morality by
law ; but the times are changed, and unless we
can regulate public sentiment, and secure mo-
rality in some other way, WE ARE UNDONE.

Voluntary associations to support the magis-
trate in the execution of the law are useful, but
r-fter all are ineffectual — for though, in a single
town, or state, they may effect a temporary
reformation, it requires an effort to make them
universal, and to ke^p up .their energy, which
never has been, and never will be made.

Besides, the reformation of a town, or even of
a state, is but emptying of its waters the bed of
a river, to be instantly replaced by the waters
from above ; or like the creation of a vacuum in
the atmosphere, which is instantly filled by the
pressure of the circumjacent air.

The remedy, whatever it may be, must be
universal, operating permanently, at all times,
and in all places. Short of this, every thing
which can be done, will be but the application
of temporary expedients.

There is somewhere a mighty energy of evil
at work in the production of intemperance, and
until we can discover and destroy this vital
power of mischief, we shall labor in vain.

64 THE REMEDY

Intemperance in our land is not accidental ;
it is rolling in upon us by the violation of some
great laws of human nature. In our view?, and
in our practice as a nation, there is something
fundamentally wrong; and the remedy, like the
evil, must be found in the correct application of
general principles. It must be a universal and
national remedy.

What then is this universal, natural, and na-
tional remedy for intemperance ?

IT IS THE BANISHMENT OF ARDENT SPIRITS
FROM THE LIST OF LAWFUL ARTICLES OF COM-
MERCE, BY A CORRECT AND EFFICIENT PUBLIC
SENTIMENT J SUCH AS HAS TURNED SLAVERY
OUT OF HALF OCR LAND, AND WILL YET EXPEL
IT FROM THE WORLD.

Nothing should now be said, by way of crimi-
nation for the past, for verily we have all been
guilty in this thing; so that thefe are few in the
land, whose brother's blood may not cry out
against them from the ground, on account of
the bad influence which has been lent in some
way to the work of destruction.

We are not therefore to come down in wrath
upon the distillers, and importers, and venders
of ardent spirits. None of us are enough with-
out sin to cast the first stone. For who would
have imported, or distilled, or vended, if all the
nominally temperate in the land had refased to
drink ? It is the buyers AVUO have created the
demand for ardent spirits, and made distillation
and importation a gainful traffick. And it is

OF INTEMPERANCE. OS

the custom of the temperate too, which inun-
dates the land with the occasion of so much
and such unmanageable temptation. Let the
temperate cease to buy — and the demand for
ardent spirits will fall in the market three
fourths, and ultimately will fail wholly, as the
ration of drunkards shall . hasten, out of
time.

To insist that men, whose capital is embarked
in the production, or vending of ardent spirits,
shall manifest fhe entire magnanimity and soli-
denial, which is needful to save the land, though
the example would be glorious to them, is more
than we have a right to expect or demand. Let
the consumer do his duty, and the capitalist,
finding his employment unproductive, will quick-
ly discover other channels of 'useful enterprise.
All language of impatient censure, against those
who embarked in the traflick of ardent spirits
while it was deemed a lawful calling, should
therefore be forborne. It would only serve to
irritate and arouse prejudice, and prevent in-
vestigation, and concentrate a deaf and deadly
opposition against the work of reformation. No
ex post facto laws. — Let us all rather confess the
sins which are past, and leave the things which
are behind, and press forward in one harmonious
attempt to reform the land, and perpetuate our
invaluable blersings.

This however cannot be done effectually so
long as the traffick in ardent spirits is regarded
as lawful, and is patronised by men of reputation
5*

66 THE REMEDY

and moral worth in every part of the land. Like
slavery, it must be regarded as sinful, impolitic,
and dishonorable. That no measuies will avail
short of rendering ardent spirits a contraband of
trade, is nearly self-evident.

Could intemperance be stopped, did all the
rivers in the land flow with inebriating and fas-
cinating liquids ? But the abundance and cheap-
ness of ardent spirits is such, that, surrounded
as it is by the seductions of company, and every
artifice of entertainment, it is more tempting
and fatal than if it flo.wed freely as water.
Then, like the inferior creation, men might be
expected to drink when athirst, and to drink
alone. But intemperance now is a social sin,
and on that account exerts a power terrific and
destructive as the plague.

That the trafnck in ardent spirits is wrong,
and should be abandoned as a great national
evil, is evident from the following considera-
tions.

1. It employs a multitude of men, and a vast
amount of capital, to no useful purpose. The
medicinal use of ardent spirits is allowed ; for
this however the apothecary can furnish an
adequate supply : but considered as an article
of commerce, for ordinary use, it adds nothing
to animal or social enjoyment, to muscular
power, to intellectual vigor, or moral feeling.
It does, indeed, produce paroxysms of muscular
effort, of intellectual vigor, and of exhilarated
feeling, but it ia done only by an improvident

OF INTEMPERANCE. 07

draught upon nature by anticipation, to be pu-
nished by a languor and debility proportioned to
the excess. No man leaves behind him a mor;
valuable product of labor, as the result of artifi-
cial stimulus, than the even industry of unstimu-
lated nature would have produced; or blesses
the world with better specimens of intellectual
power ; or instructs it by a bettei example ; or
drinks enjoyment from a fuller, sweeter cup,
than that which nature provides. But if the
premises are just, who can resist the conclu-
sion ? To what purpose is all this waste ? Is it
not the duty of every man to serve his genera-
tion in some useful employment ? Is not idleness
a sin ? But in what respect does that occupa-
tion differ from idleness which adds nothing to
national prosperity, or to individual or social
enjoyment ? Agriculture, commerce, and the
arts are indispensable to the perfection of human
character, and the formation of the happiest
state of society ; and if some evils are inseparable
from their prosecution, there is a vast overba-
lancing amount of good. But where is the good
produced by the traffick in ardent spirits, to
balance the enormous evils inseparable from the
trade ? What drop of good does it pour into the
ocean of misery which it creates ? And is all
this expense of capital, and time, and effort, to
be sustained for nothing ? Look at the mighty
system of useless operations — the fleet of vessels
running to and fro — the sooty buildings tlxough-
out the land, darkening the heavens wilh their

08 THE REMEDY

steam and smoke — the innumerable company of
boats, and wagons, and horses, and men — a
more numerous cavalry than ever shook the
blood-stained plains of Europe — a larger convoy
than ever bore on the waves the baggage of an
army — and more men than wete -ever devoted
at once to the work of desolation and blood.
All these begin, continue, and end their days
in the production and distribution of a liquid,
the entire consumption of which is useless.
Should all the capital thus employed, and all
the gains acquired, be melted into one mass/ and
thrown into the sea, nothing would be subtracted
from national wealth or enjoyment. Had ail
the men and animals slept the whole time, no
vacancy of good had been occasioned.

Is this then the manner in whjch rational
beings should be willing to spend their days — in
which immortal beings should fill up the short
period of their probation, and make up the ac-
count to be rendered to God of the deeds done,
in the body — in which benevolent beings, de-
siring to emulate the goodness cf the great God,
should be satisfied to employ their powers ?

It is admitted that the trade employs and sus-
tains many families, and that in many instances
the profits are appropriated to useful purposes.
But this is no more than might have been said
of the slave trade. The same families might be
as well sustained in some other way, and the
same profits might be earned and applied to use-
ful purposes in some other calling. The earth is

OP INTEMPERANCE. 69

not so narrow, nor population so dense, nor the
useful avocations so overstocked, as that large
portions of time, and capital, and labor, may be
devoted to the purpose of sustaining life merely,
without reference to public utility.

The merchant who deals in ardent spirits is
himself a loser ; for a temperate population con-
sume more, and pay better, and live longer, than
the intemperate; and among such a population
merchants would do more business, and secure
better profits than when they depend for any
part of their gains upon the sale of ardent spirits.
What merchant, looking out for a place where
to establish himself in trade, would neglect the
invitation of temperate, thrifty farmers and me-
chanics, and settle down in a village of riot and
drunkenness — made up of tipplers, widows, and
beggared children — of old houses, broken win-
dows, and dilapidated fences ?

I push not this argument reproachfully, but
for the purpose of awakening conscientious in-
vestigation. We are- a free people. No imperial
ukase, or forest of bayonets, can make us moral
and industrious, or turn us back if we go astray.
Our own intelligence and moral energy must
reclaim us, or we shall perish in our sins.

2. The amount of suffering and mortality in-
separable from the commerce in ardent spirits,
renders it an unlawful article of trade.

The wickedness is proverbial of those who
in ancient days caused their children to pass
through the fire unto Moloch. But how many

70 THE REMEDY

thousands of children are there in our land who
endure daily privations and sufferings, which
render life a burden, and would have made the
momentary pang of infant sacrifice a blessing ?
Theirs is a lingering, living death. There never
was a Moloch to whom were immolated yearly
as many children as are immolated, or kept in a
state of constant suffering in this land of nominal
Christianity. We have no drums and gongs to
drown their cries, neither do we make convo-
cations, and bring them all out for one mighty
burning. The fires which consume them are
slow fires, and they blaze balefully in every part
of our land; throughout which the cries of
injured children and orphans go up to heaven.
Could all these woes, the product of intempe-
rance, be brought out into one place, and the
monster who inflicts the sufferings be seen per-
sonified, the nation would be furious with in-
dignation. Humanity, conscience, religion, all
would conspire to stop a work of such malignity.
We are appalled, and shocked, at the ac-
counts from the east, of widows burnt 'ipou the
'uneral piles of their departed husbands. .But
what if those devotees of superstition, the Brah-
mins, had discovered a mode of prolonging the
lives of the victims for years amid the llames,
and by these protracted burnings were accus-
tomed to torture life away ? We might almost
rouse up a crusade to cross the deep, to stop by
force such inhumanity. But, alas ! we should
leave behind us, on our own shores, more wives

Ut INTEMPERANCE. 71

m the fire, than we should find of widows thus
sacrificed in all the east ; a fire too, whirh, be-
sides its action upon the body, tortures the soui
by lust atl'ections, and ruined hopes, and pros-
pective wretchedness.

It is high time to enter upon the business of
collecting facts on this subject. The statistics
of intemperance should be published ; for no
man has comprehended as yet the height, and
depth, and length, arid breadth of this mighty
evil.

We execrate the cruelties of the slave trade —
the husband torn from the bosom of his wife —
the son from his father — brothers and sisters
separated forever — whole families in a moment
ruined ! But are there no similar enormities to
be witnessed in the United States ? None in-
deed perpetrated by the bayonet — but -many,
very many, perpetrated by intemperance.

Every year thousands of families are robbed
of fathers, brothers, husbands, friends. Every
year widows and orphans are multiplied, and
grey hairs are brought with sorrow to the grave
— no disease makes such inroads upon families,
blasts so many hopes, destroys so many lives,
and causes so many mourners to go about the
streets, because man goeth to his long home.

We have heard of the horrors of the middle
passage — the transportation of slaves — the chains
— the darkness — the stench — the mortality and
living madness of wo— and it is dreadful. But
bring together the victims of intemperance, and

72 TUB REMEDY

crowd them into one vast lazar-house, and
sights of wo quite as appalling would meet your
eyes.

Yes, in this nation there is a middle passage
of slavery, and darkness, and chains, and dis-
ease, and death. But it is a middle passage, not
from Africa to America, hut from time to eter-
nity, and not of slaves whom death will release
from suffering, but of those whose sufferings at
death do but just begin. Could all the sighs of
these captives be wafted on one breeze, it would
be loud as thunder. Could all ti;eir tears be
assembled, they would be like the sea.

The health of a nation is a matter of vast
importance, and none may directly and avowedly
sport with it. The importation and dissemina-
tion of fevers for filthy lucre's sake, would not
be endured, and he who should import and
plant the seed of trees, which, like the fabled
Upas, poisoned the atmosphere, and paved the
earth around with bones, would meet with uni-
versal execration. The construction of morasses
and staguout lakes, sending out poisonous exha-
lations, and depopulating the country around,
would soon be stopped by the interposition of
law. And should a foreign army land upon our
shores, to levy such a tax upon us as intempe-
rance levies, and to threaten our liberties as in-
temperance threatens them, and to inflict such
enormous sufferings as intemperance inflicts, no
mortal power could resist the swelling tide of
indignation tha* would overwhelm it.

OF INTtMPERANCE. 73

It is only in the form of ardent spirits in the
way of a lawful trade extended over the entire
land, that fevers n:;:y be imported and dissemi-
1— that trees of death may be planted —
that extrusive morasses may be opened, and ?.
moral minima spn-ad over the nation — and that
an armed host may lan.l, to levy upon us enor-
mous taxations, to undermine our liberties, bind
our hands, and put our feet in fetters. This
dreadful work is goin^ on, and yet the nation.
sleeps. Say not that all these evils result from
the abuse of ardent spirits ; for as human nature'
is constituted, the abuse is as certain as any of
the laws.of nature. The commerce therefore,
in ardent spirits, which produces no good, and
produces a certain and an immense amount of
evil, must be regarded as an unlawful commerce,
and ought, upon every principle of humanity,
and patriotism, and conscience, and religion, to
be abandoned and proscribed.
7

SERMON V.

THE REMEDY OF INTEMPERANCE.

HABAKKDK, ii. 9—11, 15, 16.

«

Wo to him thatcoveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that
he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the
power of evil I Thou hast consulted shame to thy house hy cutting
olTmany people, and hast sinned against thy soul. For the stone
shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall an-
swer it.

U'n unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, 'hat piitte«t thy bot-
tle to him, and makesi him drunken also, that lliou mayest look on
their nakedness! Thou art tilled with shame for plory : drink thou.
also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the ciipuf the LORD'S right
hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on
thy glory.

WE have endeavored to show that commerce
in ardent spirits is unlawful,

1. Inasmuch as it is useless ; and

2. As it is eminently pernicious.

We now proceed to adduce further evidence
of its unlawfulness — and observe,

3. That it seems to be a manifest violation of
the command, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself;" and of various other evangelical
precepts.

No man can act in the spirit of impartial love

76 THE REMEDY

to his neighbor, who for his own personal emolu-
ment, inflicts on him great and irreparable evil ;
for love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Love
will not burn a neighbor's house, or poison his
food, or blast his reputation, or destroy his soul.
But the commerce in ardent spirits does all this
nevitably and often. Property, reputation,
health, life and salvation fall before it.

The direct infliction of what is done indi-
rectly, would subject a man to the ignominy of
a public execution. Is it not forbidden then by
the command which requires us to love our
neighbor as ourselves ? " Whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them." Be willing to do for others whatever
you may demand of them, and inflict nothing
upon them which you would not be willing to
receive. But who is willing to be made a
drunkard, and to have his property squandered,
and his family ruined, for his neighbor's emolu-
ment ? Good were it for the members of a
family if they had never been born, rather than
to have all the eVils visited upon them, which
are occasioned by the sale of ardent spirits.

It is scarcely a palliation of this evil that no
man is destroyed maliciously — or with any di-
rect intent to kill — for the certainty of evil is as
great as if waters were poisoned which some
persons would surely drink, or as if a man
should fire in the daik upon masses of human
beings, where it must be certain that death
would be the consequence to some.

OP INTEMPEUANCE. 77

Those who engage in this traffick, are expos-
ed to temptations to intemperance which no man
will needlessly encounter who has that regard to
the preservation of his own life and virtue, which
the huv of God requires. All who are employed
in vending ardent spirits in small quantities, do
not of course -become intemperate. But the
company in whose presence they pass so much
of their time, and the constant habit of mixing
and tasting, has been the means of casting down
many strong men wounded. It is also a part of
the threatened retribution, that those who amass
property by promoting intemperance in ethers,
shall themselves be punished by falling under
the dominion of the same sin. " Wo unto him
that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy
bottle to him, and makest him drunken also—
Thou art filled with shame for glory : drink thou
also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered : the cup
of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto
thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy
glory."

The injustice which is so inseparable from the
traffick in ardent spirits, evinces its unlawfulness.

Those who vend ardent spirits will continue
to supply their customers, in many instances,
after they have ceased to be competent to take
care of their property. They are witnesses to
their dealing with a slack h«.nd, their improvi-
dence, and the accumulation of their debts ; and,
to save themselves, must secure their own claims

by obtaining mortgages on the property of the*e
T*

78 THE REMEDY

wretched victims, which they finally foreclose,
and thus wind up the scene. And are they not
in this way accessary to the melting away of
estates, and the ruin of families around them ?
And can all this be done without violating the
laws of humanity and equity ? Human laws may
not be able to prevent the wrong, but the cries
of widows and orphans will be heard in heaven,
and a retribution which human tribunals cannot
award, will be reserved for the day ofjudgment.
Is it not an " evil covetousness" that rolls up an
estate by such methods ? It is like " building a
town with blood, and establishing a city by ini-
quity." And can those who do thus escape ihe
wo denounced against him, " that giveth his
neighbor drink, that putteth his bottle to him,
and maketh him drunken ?n

Can it be denied that the commerce in ardent
spirits makes a fearful havock of property, mor-
als, and life? Does it not shed blood ai really as
the sword, and more blcod than is shed by \
•In this point none are better witnesses than
physicians, and, according to their testimony,
intemperance is one of the greatest destroyers
of virtue, health and life.

It is admitted that commerce generally lays a
heavy tax upon life and morals. But it is an
evil inseparable from a course of things which is
actually indispensable to civilization. The en-
tire melioration of the human condition seems to
depend upon it, so that were commerce to cease,
agriculture would fall back to the simple product

OP INTEMPERANCE. 79

of a supply without surplus, destroying the arts,
and cutting the sinews of industry. But the
commerce in ardent spirits stands on a different
ground : its evils are compensated by no great i T
good ; it promotes no good purpose which would
not prosper liettei without it; it does not aflbrd
property to those; who engage. in it, which they
might not accumulate in some other way ; nor
dors it give the least adventitious aid to agricul-
ture, or the arts. Every thing needful to a per-
fect s',;ite of society can exist without it; and
with it, such a state of society can never be
attained. It retards the accomplishment of that
prophecy of scripture which foretells the, time,
when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the
earth, and violence and fraud shall cease.

The consideration, that those, to whose injury
we are accessary by the s.ale of ardent spirits, are
destroyed also by the perversion of their own
free* agency — and that the evil is silent, and
slow-paced in its march — doubtless subtracts in
no small degree, from the keen sense of ac-
countability and crime, which would attend the
administration of arsenic, or the taking of life by
the pistol, or the dagger — as does also the con-
sideration, that although we may withhold the
cup, yet, from some other source, the deleterious
potion will be obtained.

But all tlu's alters not the case. He who de-
liberitely assists his neighbor to destroy his life,
is not guiltless because his neighbor is a free
agent and is also guilty — and he is accessary to

80 THE REMEDY

the crime, though twenty other persons might
have been ready to commit the same sin, if he
had not done it. Who would sell arsenic to his
neighbor to destroy himself, because he could
obtain it elsewhere ? Who would sell a dagger
for the known purpose of assassination, because,
if it were refused, it could be purchased in
another place ? We are •accountable for our
own wrong-doing, and liable to punishment at
the hand of God, as really as if it had been cer-
tain that no one would have done the deed, if
we did not.

The ungodliness in time, and the everlasting
ruin in eternity, inseparable from the commerce
in ardent spirits, proscribe it as an unlawful
article of traffick.

Who can estimate the hatred of God, of his
word and worship, and of his people, which it
occasions; or number the oaths and blasphemies
it causes to be uttered — or the violations of the
sabbath — the impurities and indecencies — vio-
lence and wrong-doing — which it originates ?
How many thousand does it detain every sab-
bath-day from the house of God — cutting them
off from the means of grace, and hardening them
against their efficacy ! How broad is the road
which intemperance alone opens to hell, and
how thronged with travellers !

Why is all this increase of ungodliness and
crime ? Is not the desperate wickedness of the
heart sufficient without artificial excitement ? If
the commerce were inseparable from all the great

OF INTEMPERANCE. 81

and good ends of our social being, we might en-
dure the evil, for the sake of the good, and they
only he accountable who abuse themselves. But
hiTt- is .in article of commerce spread over the
land, whose effect is evil only, and that con-
tinually, and whi'-Ji increases a hundred-fold
the energies of human depravity, and the hope-
less victims of future punishment.

Drunkenness is a sin which excludes from
heaven. The commerce in ardent spirits, there-
fore, productive only of evil in time, fits for
destruction, and turns into hell multitudes which
no man can number.

I am aware that in the din of business, and
the eager thirst for gain, the consequences of
our conduct upon our views, and the future
destiny of our fellow men, are not apt to be
realized, or to modify our course.

But has not God connected with all lawful
avocations the welfare of the life that now is, and
of that which is to come ? And can we lawfully
amass property by a course of trade which fills
the land with beggars, and widows, and orphans,
and crimes ; which peoples the grave-yard with
premature mortality, and the world of wo with
the victims of despair ? Could all the forms of
evil produced in the land by intemperance, come
upon us in one honid array — it would appal the
nation, and put an end to the traffick in ardent
spirits. If in every dwelling built by blood, the
stone from the wall should utter all the cries
which the bloody traffick extorts — and the beam

82 THE REMEDY

out of the timber should echo them back — who
would build such a house? — and who would
dwell in it ? What if in every part of the dwel-
ling, from the cellar upward, through all the halls
and chambers — babblings, and contentions, and
voices, and groans, and shrieks, and wailings,
were heard, day and night ! What if the cold
blood oozed out, and stood in drops upon the
Avails ; and, by preternatural art, all the ghastly
skulls and bones of the victims destroyed by in-
temperance, should stand upon the walls, in hor-
rid sculpture within and without the building ! —
who would rear such a building ? What if at
eventide, and at midnight, the airy forms of men
destroyed by intemperance, were dimly seen
haunting the distilleries and stores, where they
received their bane — following the track of the
ship engaged in the commerce — walking upon
the waves — flitting athwart the deck — sitting
upon the rigging — and sending up, from the hold
within, and from the waves without, groans, and
loud laments, and wuilings ! Who would attend
such stores? Who would labor in such distil-
leries ? Who would navigate such ships ?

Oh ! were the sky over our heads one great
whispering gallery, bringing down about >is all
the lamentation and wo which intemperance
creates, and the firm earth one sonorous medium
of sound, bringing up around us from beneath,
the wailings of the damned, whom the commerce
in ardent spirits had sent thither; — these tre-
mendous realities, assailing our sense, would in-

OP INTEMPERANCE. 83

vigorate our conscience, and give decision to our
purpose of reformation. But these evils are as
real, as if the stone did cry out of the wall, and
the beam answered it — as real, as if, day and
night, wailings were heard iu every part of the
dwelling — and blood and skeletons were seen
upon every wall — as real, as if the ghostly forms
of departed victims flitted about the ship a.s she
passed o'er the billows, and showed themselves
nightly about stoics and distilleries, and with
unearthly voices screamed in our ears their loud
lament. They are as real, as if the sky over our
heads collected and brought down about us all
the notes of sorrow in the land — and the firm
earth should open a passage for the wailings of
despair to come up from beneath.

But it will be said, — What can be done ? — and
ten thousand voices will reply, ' Nothing — oh
nothing — men always have drunk to e'xcess, and
they always will ; there is so much capital em-
barked in the business of importation and distil-
lation— and so much supposed gain in vending
ardent spirits — and such an insatiable demand
for them — and such ability to pay for them by
high-minded, wilful, independent freemen — that
nothing can be done.'

Then farewell, a long farewell, to all our
greatness ! The present abuse of ardent spirits
has grown out of what was the prudent use of
it, less than one hundred years ago ; then there
was very little intemperance in the land — most
men, who drank at all, drank temperately. But

84 THE REMEDY

if the prudent use of ardent spirits one hundred
years ago, has produced such results as now
exist, what will the present intemperate use
accomplish in a century to come ? Let no man
turn off his eye from this suhject, or refuse to
reason," and infer — there is a moral certainty
of a wide extended ruin, without reformation.
The seasons are not more sure to roll, the sun
to shine, or the rivers to flow — than the present
enormous consumption of arden* spirits is sure
to produce the most deadly consequences to the
nation. They will be consumed in a compound
ratio — and there is a physical certainty of the
dreadful consequences. Have you taken the
dimensions of the evil, its manifold and magni-
fying miseries, its sure-paced and tremendous
ruin ? And shall it come unresisted by prayer,
and without a finger lifted to stay the desola-
tion ?

What if all men had cried out, as some did, at
the commencement of the revolutionary struggle
— l Alf.s ! we must submit — we must be taxed —
nothing can be done — Oh the fleets and armies
of England — we cannot stand before them ! ! '
Had such counsels prevailed, we should have
abandoned a righteous cause, and forfeited that
aid of Heaven, for which men are always au-
thorized to trust in God, who are disposed to do
his will.

Nothing can be done ! Why can nothing be
done ? Because the intemperate will not stop
drinking, shall the temperate keep on and be-

OF INTEMPERANCE. 85

come drunkards ? Because the intemperate
cannot be reasoned with, shall tho temperate
become madmen ? And because force will not
avail with men of independence and property,
does it foliow that reason, and conscience, and
the fear of the Lord, will have no influence ?

And because the public mind is now unen-
lightened, and unawakeued, and unconcentrated,
does it follow that it cannot be enlightened, and
aroused, and concentrated in one simultaneous
and successful effort? Reformations as much
resisted by popular feeling, and impeded by ig-
norance, interest, and depraved obstinacy, have
been accomplished, through the medium of a
rectified public opinion, — and no nation ever
possessed the opportunities and the means that
we possess, of correctly forming the public opin-
ion— nor was a nation ever called upon to at-
tempt it by motives of such imperious necessity.
Our all is at stake — we shall perish if we do not
effect it. There is nothing that ought to be
done, which a free people cannot do.

The science of self-government is the science
of perfect government, which we have yet to
learn and teach, or this nation, and the world,
must be governed by force. But we have all
the means, and none of the impediments, which
hinder the experiment amid the dynasties and
feudal despotisms of Europe. And what has
been done justifies the expectation that all
which yet remains to be done will be accom-
plished. The abolition of the slave trade, an
8

86 THE REMEDY

event now almost accomplished, was once re-
garded as a chimera of benevolent dreaming.
But the band of Christian heroes, who conse-
crated «heir lives to the work, may some of them
survive to behold it achieved. This greatest of
evils upon earth, this stigma of human nature,
wide-spread, deep-rooted, and intrenched by
interest and state policy, is passing away before
the unbending requisitions of enlightened public
opinion.

No great melioration of the human condition
was ever achieved without the concurrent effort
of numbers, and no extended, well-directed ap-
plication of moral influence, was ever made in
vain. Let the temperate part of the nation
awake, and reform, and concentrate their influ-
ence in a course of systematic action, and success
is not merely probable, but absolutely certain.
And cannot this be accomplished ? — cannot
the public attention be aroused, and set in array
against the traffick in ardent spirits, and against
their use ? With just as much certainty can the
public sentiment be formed and put in motion,
as the waves can be moved by the breath of
heaven — or the massy rock, balanced on the
precipice, can be pushed from its centre of mo-
tion ; — and when the public sentiment once be-
gins to move, its march will be as resistless as
the same rock thundering down the precipice.
Let no man then look upon our condition as
hopeless, or feel, or think, or say, that nothing
can be done. The language of Heaven to our

OF INTEMPERANCE. 87

happy nation is, " be it unto thee even as thou
wilt," and there is no despondency more fatal,
or more wicked, than that which refuses to
hope, and to act, from the apprehension that
nothing can be done.

SERMON VI.

THE REMEDY OF INTEMPERANCE.

HABAKKUK, ii. 9—11, 15, 16.

\Vo to him that cnvctcth an evil covetousness to his bouse, that
he may set his i.est on high, that he may be delivered from the
power of evil! Tlum linst consulted shame to thy house hy cutting
\>fl 'in;. ii\ people, and hast slum ;d against thy soul. For the stone
shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall an-
swer it.

\Vo unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bot-
tle to him, and makest him diunken alsn, that thoii mayest look on
tlit ir i.aki dness! Thou art filled with shame for plory : drink tliou
also, aiitl lei thy foreskin he uncovered : the cup ol the LORD'S right
hand .shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on
tliy glory.

LET us now take an inventory of the things
which can be done to resist the progress of in-
temperance. I shall set down nothing which is
chimerical, nothing which will not commend
itself to every man's judgment, as entirely prac-
ticable.

1. It is entirely practicable to extend univer-
sal information on the subject of intemperance.
Its nature, causes, evils, and remedy — may be
universally made known. Every pulpit and eve-
ry newspaper in the land may be put in requisi-
8*

90 THE REMEDY

tion to give line upon line, on this subject, until
it is done. The National Tract Society may,
with great propriety, volunteer in this glorious
work, and send out its warning voice by winged
messengers all over the land. And would all
this accomplish nothing ? It would prevent the
formation of intemperate habits in millions of
instances, and it would reclaim thousands in
the ear'y stages of this sin.

2. It is practicable to form an association for
the special purpose of superintending this great
subject, and whose untiring energies shall be
exerted in sending out agents to pass through
the land, and collect information, to confer with
influential individuals, and bodies of men, to
deliver addresses at populajp meetings, and form
societies auxiliary to the parent institution.
This not only may be done, but I am persuaded
will be done before another year shall have pass-
ed away.* Too long have we slept. From every
part of the land we hear of the doings of the
destroyer, and yet the one half is not told. But
when the facts are collected and published, will
not the nation be moved ? It will be moved.
All the laws of the human mind must cease, if
such disclosures as may be made, do not pro-
duce a great effect.

3. Something has been done, and more may
be done, by agricultural, commercial, and man-

* These Discourses were composed and delivered at Lilrh-
field, in the year 18-6: since that time the American Society
for the Promotion of Temperance has been formed, and is now
in successful operation.

OF INTEMPERANCE. 91

ufacturing establishments, in the exclusion of
ardent spirits as an auxiliary to labor. Every
experiment \vhir-h bus been made by capitalists
to c\cl idt: ardent spirits and intemperance, has
succeeded, and greatly to the profit and sat!
lion, both of the laborer and his employer* And
what is more natural and easy than the exten-
sion of such 'examples by capitalists, and by
Voluntary associations, in cities, to\vns, and
parishes, of mechanics and farmers, whose reso-
lutions and success may from time to time be
published, to raise the flagging tone of hope,
and assure the land of her own self-preserving
powers ? Most assuredly it is not too late to
achieve a reformation ; our hands are not bound,
our feet are not put in fetters — and the nation is
not so fully set upon destruction, as that warn-
ing and exertion will be in vain. It is not too
much to be hoped, that the entire business of
the nation, by land and by sea, shall yet move
on without the aid of ardent spirits, and by the
impulse alone of temperate freemen. This
would cut off one of the most fruitful occasions
of intemperance, and give to our morals and to
our liberties an earthly immortality.

The young men of our land may set glorious
examples of voluntary abstinence from ardent
spirits, and, by associations for that purpose,
may array a phalanx of opposition against the
encroachments of the destroyer; while men of
high official standing and influence, may cheer
us by sending down the good example of their

92 THE REMEDY

firmness and independence, in the abolition of
long-established, but corrupting habits.
' All the professions too may volunteer in this
holy cause, and each lift up its warning voice,
and each concentrate the power of its own bless-
ed example. Already from all clerical meet-
ings the use of ardent spirits is excluded ; and
the medical profession have also commenced a
reform in this respect which, we doubt not, will
prevail. Nor is it to be expected that the btirr
or the agricultural interest as represented in*
agricultural societies, will be deficient in mag-
nanimity and patriotic zeal, in purifying the
morals, and perpetuating the liberties of the
nation. A host may be enlisted against intem-
perance which no man can number, and a moral
power be arrayed against it, which nothing can
resist.

All denominations of Christians in the nation
may with great ease be united in the effort to
exclude the use and the commerce in ardent
spirits. They alike feel and deplore the evil,
and, united, have it in their power to put a stop
to it. This union may be accomplished through
the medium of a national society. There is no
object for which a national society is more im-
periously demanded, or for which it can be
reared under happier auspices. God ^rant that
three years may not pass away, before the entire
land shall be marshalled, and the evils of intem-
perance be seen like a dark cloud passing off,
and leaving behind a cloudless day.

OP INTEMPERANCE. 93

The churches of our Lord Jesus Christ, of
every name, can do much to aid in this reforma-
tion. They ure organized to shine us lights in
the world, and to avoid the very appearance of
evil. A vigilant discipline is doubtless demand-
ed in the cases of members who are of a lax and
doubtful morality in respect to intemperance. It
is not '-L-Migh to cut off those who are past re-
formation, out1 to keep those who, by close watch-
ing, can be preserved in the use of their feet
and tongue. JSJen who are mighty to consume
strong drink, are unfit members of that kingdom
which consistent npt in " ment and drink," but
in " righteousness and pe'aee." The time, we
trust, -is not distant, when -the' use of ardent
spirits will be proscribed by a vote of all the
churches in our land, and when the commerce
in that article shall, equally with the slave trade,
be regarded as inconsistent with a credible pro-
fession of Christianity. All this, I have no doubt,
can be accomplished with far less trouble than is
now constantly cccasioned by the maintenance,
or the neglect of discipline, in respect to cases
of intemperance.

The Friends, in excluding ardent spirits from
the list of lawful articles of commerce, have
done themselves immortal honor, and in the
temperance of their families, and tneir thrift In
business, have set an example which is worthy
the admiration and imitation of all the churches
in our land.

When, the preceding measures have been car-

94 THE REMEDY

ried, something may be done by legislation, to
discourage the distillation ana importation of
ardent spirits, and to discountenance improper
modes of vending them. Then, the suffrage of
the community may be expected to put iu re-
quisition men of talents and integrity, who, sus-
tained by their constituents, will not hesitate to
frame the requisite laws, and to give to them
their salutary power. Even now there may be
an amount of suffrage, could it be concentrated
and expressed, to sustain laws which might go
to li-nit the evil ; but it is scattered, it is a dis-
persed, unorganized influence, and any effort to
suppress intemperance by legislation, now, be-
fore the public is prepared for an efficient co-
operation, could terminate only in defeat. Re-
publics must be prepared by moral sentiment for
efficient legislation.

Much may be accomplished to discounte-
nance the commerce in ardent spirits, by a
silent, judicious distribution of patronage in
trade.

Let that portion of the community, who would
exile from society the traffick in ardent spirits,
bestow their custom upon those who will agree
to abandon it ; and a regard to interest will soon
producfe a competition in well doing. The tem-
perate population of a city or town are the best
customers, and have it in their power to render
the commerce hi ardent spirits disadvantageous
to those who engage in it. This would throw
an irresistible argument upon the side of refer-

OF INTEMPERANCE. 95

mation. There are many now who would gladly
be released Irora the necessity of dealing in
spirituous liquors, but they think that their
customers Mtould not bear it. Let their sober
customers, then, take off their iears on this hand,
and array them on the other, and a glorious
reformation is achieved. When the temperate
part of the community shall not only declaim
against mercantile establishments which thrive
by the dissemination of moral contagion, but
shall begin to act with a silent but determined
discrimination, the work is done ; — and can any
conscientious man fail to make the experiment?
" To him who knoweth to do good and doeth
it not, to him it is sin." If we countenance
establishments in extending and perpetuating a
national calamity, are we not partakers in other
men's sins? How many thousands may be
saved from entering into temptation, and how
many thousands rescued who have entered, if
temperate families will give thei* custom to
those who have abandoned the traflick in ardent
spirits ! And to how much crime, and suffering,
and blood, shall we be accessary, if we fail to do
our duty in this respect ! Let every man, then,
bestow his custom in the fear of the Lord, and
as he expects to give an account with joy or
grief, of the improvement or neglect of that
powerful means of effecting moral good.

When all these preliminary steps have been
taken, petitions may be addressed to the Legis-
latures of the States and to Congress, by all

96 THE REMEDY

denominations, each under their own proper
name, praying for legislative interference to pro-
tect the health and morals of the nation. This
will call to the subject the attention of the ablest
men in the nation, and enable them to touch
some of the springs of general action with com-
pendious energy. They can jeach the causes
of disastrous action, when the public sentiment
will bear, them out in it, and can introduce prin-
ciples which, like the great law* of nature, will,
with silent simplicity, reform and purify the land.
And now, could my voice be extended through
the land, to all orders and descriptions of men,
I would " cry aloud and spare not." To the
watchmen upon Zion's walls — appointed to an-
nounce the approach of danger, and to say unto
the wicked man, " thou shalt surely die" — I
would say — can we hold our peace, or withhold
the influence of our example in such an emer-
gency as this, and be guiltless of blood ? Are
we not called upon to set examples of entire
abstinence ? How otherwise shall we be able-
to preach against intemperance,- and reprove,
rebuke, and exhort ? Talk not of " habit," and
of " prudent use," and a little for the " stomach's
sake." This is the way in which men become
drunkards. Our security and our influence de-
mand immediate and entiie abstinence. If
nature would receive a shock by such a refor-
mation, it proves that it has already been too
long delayed, and can safely be deferred no
longer.

OF INTEMPERANCE. 97

To the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ,—
whom he hath purchased with his blood, that he
might redeem them from all iniquity, and purify
tlu-in to himself, a peculiar people — I would say
— Beloved in the Lord, the world hath need of
your purified example ; — for who will make a
stand against the encroachments of intemperance,
if professors of religion will not ? Will you not,
then, abstain from the use of it entirely, and exile
it from your families ? Will you not watch over
one another with keener vigilance — aud lift an
earlier note of admonition — and draw tighter the
bands of brotherly discipline — and with a more
determined fidelity, cut off those whom admo-
nition cannot reclaim ? Separate, brethren, be-
tween the precious and the vile, the living and
the dead, and burn incense between them, that
the plague may be stayed.

To the physicians of the land I would cry for
help, in this attempt to stay the march of ruin.
Beloved men — possessing our confidence "by
your skill, and our hearts by your assiduities in
seasons of alarm and distress — combine, I be-
seech you, and exert, systematically and vigo-
rously, the mighty power you possess on this
subject, over the national understanding and
will. Beware of planting the seed* of intempe-
rance in the course of your professional labors,
but become our guardian angels to conduct us
in the paths of health and of virtue. Fear not
the consequence of fidelity in admonishing your
patients, when diseased by intemperance, of the
9

98 THE REMEDY

cause, and the remedy of their malady : and
whenever one of you shall be rejected for your
faithfulness, and another be called in to prophesy
smooth things, let all the 'intemperate, and all
the land know, that in the whole nation there
are no false prophets among physicians, who, for
filthy lucre, will cry peace to their intemperate
patients, when there is no peace to them, but in
reformation. Will you not speak out on this
subject in all your medical societies, and provide
tracts sanctioned by your high professional au-
thority, to be spread over the laud ?

Ye magistrates, to whom the law has confi-
ded the discretionary power of giving li
for the vending of ardent spirits, and the sword
for the punishment of the violations of law—
though you alone could not resist the burning
tide, yet, when the nation is moved with fear,
and is putting in requisition her energies to
strengthen your hands — will you not stand up
to your duty, and do it fearlessly and firmly ?
No class of men in the community possess as
much direct power as you possess, and, when
sustained by public sentiment, your official in-
fluence and authority may be made irresistible.
Hemember, then, your designation by Heaven to
office for this self-same thing ; — and, as you
would maintain a conscience void of offence,
and give up to God a joyful account — be faith-
ful. Through you, let the violated law speak
out — and righteousness and peace become the
stability of our times.

OP INTEMPERANCE. 99

To the governments of the states Vid of the
nation, appointed to see to it, " that the com-
monwealth receives no detriment," while they
facilitate and guide the energies of a free peo-
ple, and protect the boundless result." of indus-
try-»-I would say — Beloved men and highly
honored, how ample and how enviable are your
opportunities of doing good — and how trivial,
and contemptible, and momentary, are the in-
sults of civil policy merely, while moral prin-
ciple, that main-spring of the soul, is impaire^l
and destroyed by crime. Under the auspices
of the national and state governments, science,
commerce, agriculture and the arts flourish, and
our wealth flows in like the waves of the sea.
But where is the wisdom of filling up by a thou-
sand streams the reservoir of national wealth, to
be poured out again by as many channels of
profusion and crime ? Colleges are reared and
multiplied by public munificence, while acade-
mies and common schools enlighten the land.
But to what purpose— when a single crime sends
up exhalations enough to eclipse half the stars
and suns destined to enlighten our ii.oral hemi-
sphere, before they have reached their meri-
dian.

The medical profession is patronised, and
ought to be ; and the standard of medical at-
tainment is lising. But a single crime, unre-
sisted, throws into the distance all the achieve-
ments of art, and multiplies disease and death
much faster than the improvements in medical

100 THE REMEDY

science can multiply the means of preventing
them.

The improvements by steam and by canals
augment the facilities and the motives to nation-
al industry. But, while intemperance rages and
increases, it is only to pour the tide of wealth
into one mighty vortex which swallows it up,
and, with a voice of thunder, and the insatiable
desire of the grave, cries, Give, give ; and saith
not, It is enough.

Republican institutions are guarantied to the
states, and the whole nation watches with sleep-
less vigilance the altar of liberty. But a mighty
despot, whose army is legion, has invaded the
land — carrying in his course taxation, and chains,
and fire, and the rack — insomuch that the whole
land bleeds and groans at every step of his iron
foot — at every movement of his massy sceptre —
at every pulsation of his relentless heart. And
yet in daylight and at midnight he stalks unmo-
lested— while his myrmidons with infernal joy
are preparing an ocean of blood in which our
sun may set never to rise.

The friends of the Lord and his Christ, with
laudable enterprise, are rearing temples to Je-
hovah, and extending his word and ordinances
through the land, while the irreligious influence
of a single crime balances, or nearly balances,
the entire account.

And now, ye venerable and honorable men,
raised to seats of legislation in a nation which is
the freest, and is destined to become the great-

OF INTEMPERAN'CE. 101

est, and may become the happiest upon earth —
can you, will you behold unmoved the march
of this mighty evil ? Shall it mine in darkness,
and lift fearlessly its giant form in daylight — and
deliberately <!ii!, ilie grave of our liberties — and
entomb thy last hope of enslaved nations — and
nothing be done by the national government
to stop the destroyer ? With the concurrent aid
of an enlightened public sentiment, you possess
the power of a most eflicacious legislation ; and,
by your example and inlluence, you of all men
possess the best opportunities of forming a cor-
rect and irresistible public sentiment on the side
of temperance. Much power to you is given to
check and extirpate this evil, and to roll down
to distant ages, broader, and deeper, aud purer,
the streams of national prosperity. Save us by
your wisdom and firmness, save us by your own
example, and, " as in duty bound, we will ever
pray."

Could I call around me in one vast assembly
the temperate young men of our land, I would
say— Hopes of the nation, blessed be ye of the
Lord now in the dew of your youth. But look
well to your footsteps : for vipers, and scorpions,
and adders, surround your way — look at the
generation who have just preceded you, — the
morning of their life was cloudless, and it dawn-
ed as brightly as your own — but behold them
bitten, swollen, enfeebled, inflamed, debauched,
idle, poor, irreligious, and vicious, — with halting
step dragging onward to meet an early grave !
9*

102 THE REMEDY

Their bright prospects are clouded, and their
sun is set never to rise. No house of their own
receives them, while from poorer to poorer tene-
ments they descend, and to harder and harder
fare, as improvidence dries up their resources.
And now, who are those that wait on their foot-
steps with muffled faces and sable garments ?
That is a father — and that is a mother — whose
grey hairs are coming with sorrow to the grave.
That is a sister, weeping over evils which she
cannot arrest — and there is the broken-hearted
wife — and there are the children — hapless inno-
cents— for whom their father Las provided the
inheritance only of dishonor, and nakedness,
and wo. And is this, beloved young men, the
history of your course — in, this scene of desola-
tion, do you behold the image of your future
selves — is this the poverty and disease, which as
an armed man shall take hold on you — and are
your fathers, and mothers, and sister"., and wives,
and children, to succeed to those who now move
on in this mournful procession — weeping as they
go ? Yes — bright as your morning now opens,
and high as your hopes beat, this is your Tioon-,
and your night, unless you shun those habits of
intemperance which have thus early made theirs
a day of clouds, and of th'.ck darkness. If you
frequent places of evening resort for social drink-
ing— if you set out with drinking, daily, a little,
temperately, prudently, it is yourselves which,
as in a glass, you beliold.

Might I select specific objects of address — to

OF INTEMPERANCE. 103

the young husbandman or mechanic — I would
say— Happy man — your employment is useful,
and honorable, and with temperance and in-
dustry you rise to competence, and rear up
around you a happy family, and trunsii.it to
them, :is a precious legacy, your own fair fame.
But look around you ; — are there none who
\\ere once in your condition, whose health, and
reputation, and substance, are gone ? . What
would tempt you to exchange conditions ? And
yet, sure as seed-time and harvest, if you drink
daily, at stated times, and visit from evening to
evening the resorts of social drinking, or stop
to take refreshment as you enter or retire from
the city, town, or village, yours will become the
condition of those ruined farmers and artisans
around you.

To another I would say — You are a man of
wealth, and may drink to the extinction of life,
without the risk of impoverishment — but look
at your neighbor, his bloated face, and inflamed
eye, and blistered lip, and trembling hand — he
too is a man of wealth, and may die of intem-
perance without the fear of poverty.

Do yoxi demand, " what have I to do with
such examples ?" Nothing — if you take warn-
ing by them. But if you too should cleave to
the morning bitter, and the noon-tide drarn, and
the evening beverage, you have in these signals
of ruin the memorials of your own miserable
end ; for the same causes, in the same circum-
stances, will produce the same effects.

104 THE REMEDY

To the affectionate husband I would say —
Behold the wife of thy bosom, young and beau-
tiful as the morning — and yet her day may be
overcast with clouds, and all thy early hopes be
blasted. Upon her the fell destroyer may lay
his hand, and plant in that healthful frame the
seeds of disease, and transmit to successive gen-
erations the inheritance of crime and wo. Will
you not watch over her with ever-wakeful affec-
tion— and keep far from your abode the occasions
of temptation and ruin ? Call around you the
circle of your healthful and beautiful children.
Will you bring contagion into such a circle as
this? Shall those sparkling eyes become in-
flamed— those rosy cheeks purpled and bloated
— that sweet breath be tainted — those ruby lips
blistered — and that vital tone of unceasing cheer-
fulness be turned into tremour and melancholy ?
Shall those joints so compact be unstrung — that
dawning intellect beclouded — those affectionate
sensibilities benumbed, and those capacities for
holiness and heaven be filled with sin, and
" fitted for destruction ?" Oh thou father, was
it for this that the Son of God shed his blood
for thy precious offspring — that, abandoned and
even tempted by thee, they should destroy them-
selves, and pierce thy heart with many sorrow s ;
Wouldst thou let the wolf into thy sheep-fold
among the tender lambs — wouldst thou send thy
flock to graze about a den of lions ? — Close,
then, thy doors against a more ferocious de-
stroyer— and withhold the footsteps of thy im-

OP INTEMPERANCE! 105

mortal progeny from places of resort more dan-
gerous than the lion's den. Should a serpent
of vast dimensions surprise, in the. iield one of
your little, group, and wreath about liis body his
cold, elastic folds*— tightening with every yielding
breath his deadly gripe, how would his cries
pierce your soul — and his strained eye-balls, and
convulsive agonies, and imploring hands, add
wings to your feet, and supernatural strength to
your arms ! — But in this case you could ap-
proach with hope to his rescue. The keen edge
of steel might sunder the elastic fold, and rescue
the victim, who, the moment he is released,
breathes freely, and is well again. But the ser-
pent intemperance twines about the body of
your child a deadlier gripe, and extorts a keener
cry of distress, and mocks your effort to relieve
him by a fibre which no steel can sunder. Like
Laocoon^you can only look on while bone after
bone of your child is crushed, till his agonies are
over, and his cries are hushed in death.

And now, to every one whose eye has passed
over these pages— I would say — Resolve upon
reformation by entire abstinence, before you
close the book.

While the argument is clear, and the impres-
sion of it is fresh, and your judgment is con-
vinced, and your conscience is awake, be per-
suaded, not almost, but altogether. The present
moment may be the one which decides your
destiny forever. As you decide now upon ab-
stinence, or continued indulgence, so may your

106 THE 11EMBD7

character be, through time and through eternity.
Resolve also instantly to exclude ardent spirits
from your family, and put out of sight the me-
morials of past folly and danger. And if for
medicinal purposes you retain ardent spirits in
your house, let it be among other drugs,
labelled, " Touch not, taste not, handle not."

As you would regulate your conduct by th;;
Gospel, and give up your last account with joy,
weigh well the arguments for abandoning the
traffick in ardent spirits as unlawful in the sight
of God. And "if thy right hand oft'end i.
cut it off. If thy right eye offend thee, , luck it
out." Talk not of loss and gain — <V who can
answer for the blood of souls ? and k- what shall
it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and
lose his OTrn soul ?rt *' Wo to him that coveteth
an evil covetousness to his house, that he may
set his nest on high, that he may be delivered
from the power of evil ! Thou hast consulted
shame to thy house by cutting off many people,
and hast sinned against thy soul. For the stone
shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of
the timber shall answer it. Wo to him that
buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a
city by iniquity ! Behold, is it not of the Lord
of hosts that the people shall labor in the very
fire, and the people shall weary themselves for
very vanity ?"

Let the discourses upon the causes and symp-
toms of intemperance be read aloud in your
family, at least once a year — that the deceitful

OF INTEMPERANCE. 107

dreadful evil may not fasten un perceived, his
iron i;ripe on youix-lf, «>•• any of your household
— and tint, if one shall not perceive his d
another n..iy, and ^ive the timely \\arning.
Thousaii' may he k'-pl hack Iroin

destruction, by the simple survey of the causes
and svmptoms of Intemperance. And,

Finally, when you have secured your own
household — let your benevolence extend to those
around you. Become in your neighborhood,
and throughout the whole extent of your inter-
S€ ::nd influence, a humble, affectionate, de-
termined reformer. It is to little purpose that
the causes, symptoms, e\ ils, and remedy of
intemperance have been disclosed, if this little
volume be left to work its obscure and dilatory
way through the land: but if e\er\ one who
approves of it will aid its circulation, it may find
a place yet in every family, and save millions
from temporal and eternal ruin.

I pant not for fame or posthumous immortali-
ty, but my heart's desire and prayer to God for
my countrymen is, that they may be saved from
intemperance, and that our beloved nation may
continue free, and become great and good.